Are You Ever Coming Home?...No! I am playing with Wizards,Farkles & Sparkling Friends

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pandora13by Jenseib, on Flickr

 

These floating rock/mountain formations intrigued me. At different angles they looked different. At some they looked like an animal of some sort and another angle it made a heart. I would assume Disney did this on purpose......or we just have great imaginations.

 

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We still had some time before our fastpass opened so we took a look at Satu’li Canteen.

 

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Brook had told me one item there was like a cheesecake and now one of her most favorite items in all the parks.

 

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Right now they were just serving breakfast items.

 

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We went in and got some drinks.

 

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I think we may have just gotten one to share and then headed out to take pictures and then get in line for Flight of Passage.

 

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I am going to admit right now that I have only seen Avatar once and that was probably about a year ago. I had never had a desire to see it and I only did because I knew Disney was building this land. It was better than I thought it would be, but still I didn’t think it was a great movie. But it did help me know why the land is designed the way it is and even though I don’t know the technical names oft hings, I recognized them from the movie.

Claire has never seen the movie yet and I did some quick explaining, but I promised I would get it for her to watch one day….still need to do that.

 

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It was definitely busy here this morning.

 

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We continued to walk around Pandora and take pictures.

 

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See this next picture….to me it looks like some sort of animal again in an upright pose.

 

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Everything is so colorful here.

 

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Our fastpass window opened and we headed over to get in line.

 

 

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We scanned in and headed through. This queue area is really long too for a fastpass entrance. I wonder if it gets full at times.

 

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As we went through the line, there were complaints from my daughter. Just basic…you are so lame mom type of things. I tend to sing (which I am horrible at) and dance to music. It was super embarrassing. I had heard a few complaints yesterday, but today she got worse. At one point I told her that next time I go on a 2 week trip I am going to bring someone who actually likes me. Well the complaints stopped for a bit, but still continued on for the rest of the day in milder manner. I knew it was partly because she was overtired, but I also was not about to take abuse for 2 weeks.

My sweet little girl is not always so sweet. I will say at home, she is usually an angel. She doesn’t get in trouble very much and an all-round good kid. But she has her moments, and usually it is when she hasn’t had enough sleep.

 

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Finally after some walking we came to a stop in the line. I bent over to take a forward shot.

 

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And a look back.

 

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The couple in front of us were telling us this was their 2nd ride of the morning. They arrived before rope drop and made the mad dash here and went through the regular line. They said once they got to Pandora and into the line it was a very minimal wait…..see Claire…I told you so! I mentioned to Claire that if she liked the ride we could do that on our last park day after the cruise.

 

We then were taken into our preboarding rooms. Claire and I were the last 2 in our group. I don’t want to spoil to many surprises and honestly my descriptions would not be great anyways, but they were neat rooms, ... you mainly stand and watch a screen. In one room you are“scanned” to find the right Avatar for you. It said something like it was having difficulty scanning us. I wasn’t sure if that was normal or not. I had been moving and wondered if I did something. LOL

 

Finally we were taken into the ride room. Now here is where it could go wrong. I am sure you all have heard how the ride vehicles are not too forgiving and I am a chunky girl. I prayed I would fit. I knew the 2 issues were the bar that comes up to rest on your back and the calves bar. I have big calves…always have, even when I was very skinny.

I straddled the bike looking contraption and pushed myself all the way up. The bars came into place and not a single issue! Yay!!!!! I had already told Claire that if I didn’t fit, I would wait outside for her and she could still ride, but now we knew that would not be an issue.

 

The ride is kind of set up like Soarn’…in a way. There are about 14 bikes per room and there are several rooms. Then when the ride starts, there is a big screen that all rooms are looking at. I am told the ride feels different when you sit in different locations. I will tell you now, we ended up riding this ride twice on our trip and both times we were in almost the exact location with the exception of floor level.

 

And the ride?.......AWESOME!!!!!!!! Everyone I had talked to before said it was like Soarn’ on steroids and that is a perfect description. It’s more personalized for you since you are on your own bike, but still similar in the way you move around. The wind blows on your face…. the smells are wonderful… The effects are amazing. You can feel your banshee breathing and moving between your legs. It’s just incredible. I was sad to see it end.

 

But end it did and we headed back out into the heat.

 

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And all rides must end at a gift shop!

 

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We made our way over to the Navi River Journey next to get in the stand by line.

 

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I think the sign said it would be about a 40 minute wait.

 

 

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Claire noticed that the mountains looked like a heart from this angle.

 

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A lot of the queue is outside and it was hot. Not all areas are shaded yet, but they did have fans running…thank goodness.

 

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Then we enter and area that has a roof overhead…like an open air hut.

 

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The queue winds up and down in here and then you arrive at the ride.

 

On this ride you ride in boats and I guess you could say similar to It’s a Small World in the way it works. You travel through the bioluminescent rainforest and see all the creatures and there is a song….that will become catchy in your head….as you move along.

 

I took pictures and will warn you now they are horrible. The lighting and the moving boat just make it really hard to capture them with a phone or point and shoot camera.

 

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The pictures do not do it any justice…..but it is absolutely beautiful in there.

 

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What a nice ride…and just beautiful….but my opinion…..I would probably not wait more than 30-40 minutes maximum to ride it. It wasn’t very long and its more of a ride that only needs to be done once during your trip and in the future…I could even skip it if the lines were long. I was really hoping for more on this ride, but it was too short for me to want to wait in long lines.

It was now time to find a snack at the Canteen. We decided to try both desserts and share them.

 

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This one was like a chocolate mousse inside if I remember right.

 

 

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This one was like a blueberry cheesecake.

 

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We cut them in half so we could each try both. I am not a fan of blueberry, but I like some fake blueberry flavors….this one was a winner for me. I also like the chocolate one just as well. I ate my blueberry one first and then tackled the chocolate one. Claire was not a fan of the chocolate one (she actually doesn’t eat much chocolate normally…I know…she’s a freak), but I had already ate my entire blueberry half before she told me. Had I known, I would have only taken a few bites and let her finish it. I ended up finishing her chocolate half too.

 

With that in our bellies, we headed out again as we had another fastpass calling our name.

 

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And just an FYI, when we left Pandora the line for Flightof Passage was about 3 ½ to 4 hours long. I heard later it was listed at over 5 for a while….however I do think Disney inflates the wait times sometimes, so it might not have been quite that bad.

 

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Next was Expedition Everest! No pictures because we were trying to get over there fast before our fastpass time ended. It was so much fun as always. The standby line wasn’t too bad so we turned around and got back on it for a second ride.

 

Then it was time to head to Africa.

 

 

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And our next fastpass was for Kilamanjaro Safaris.

 

We had the front seat this time, but we were squished. I am not tiny by any means and we were put in the row with some larger people. Claire refused to sit by the other people (she is shy about being by strangers) so I go in first and I was smashed up against the poor guy next tome. I felt so bad. And being in the inside made it harder to get pictures as well.

 

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One of the African Trek groups across the way.

 

 

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Of course as we traveled along the bumpy ride Claire complained that I was touching her….believe me kid….I don’t want to be touching you either.

 

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We came to the bridge that rumbles….well sometimes. I think about half the time I have done the safari it has rumbled…it did today.

 

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I had to laugh as we went over and held on for dear life for fear of the bridge breaking…..a few months ago a post from Trip Advisor had circulated around in some Facebook groups. A lady had given a review of the ride (and park I believe) and talked about how bumpy and dangerous the ride is….and goes on to say that it was so bad that they even crossed a bridge that was falling apart and they just made it over as it sagged and twisted. She was shocked that Disney would allow people to ride on such a thing. It was hilarious…..and I guess we’ll never know if she was joking or not, but reading the whole post….she complained about EVERYTHING! I think she wanted her money back. Hahahaha

 

This little guy is so cute.

 

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Ooooohhhhh! He is drinking…how cute!

 

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Rhinos are waaaaaay back there.

 

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After the ride we took a break and had a drink and relaxed a bit. I think we may have called Skip at this point then too.

Our next stop would be to see the Lion King. Would you believe we have only seen this show once and it was several years ago. Today was our first time in the new theatre.

 

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We got in line and were held off at a rope. The people next to us were totally panicking that when they allowed the others we were going to have to wait for the next show. They were sure the theatre was tiny and wouldn’t hold many people. They even wanted to duck under the rope to go in with the other crowds, but a CM saw they were contemplating it and came and stood over by us. She told us we were in the standby line, but many of us would still make it in. I was at the front, so I was fine, but really they should tell people that when they get in line there.

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We were let in and up at the top back area, but that was fine with us and it was definitely cooler than outside.

 

The show soon started and I took a lot of pictures with both my phone and camera.

 

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The show is really good…but the lack of sleep was catching up to me and at times….just sitting still there…I felt like I could fall asleep.

 

 

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After the show was over, we slowly made our way out. Claire wanted some kind of popsicle or something she had seen others eating, so we went in search for a stand that had those.

 

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This is the first we have seen the River of Lights stadium, so we took a few quick pictures.

 

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We found Claire’s treat and then we sat down to rest abit. I had bought cooling towels, and I got mine wet and had it around my neck. Claire thought it was so embarrassing that I did that and refused to use her own. I really didn’t care, it felt nice.

Anything would with temps like this.

 

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We decided to look in some shops and keep cool that way too. I found this shirt and it is so me!

 

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We then went and looked along one of the trails. We rarely do these trails at all and usually only go so far in. We only did one today, but we went all the way through.

 

 

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I thought these fish were so pretty.

 

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Hippo Butt!

 

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A little trivia for you….The Toledo Zoo, which is the zoo that is local to me….is the first zoo ever to have the underwater viewing area of hippos. I remember how cool it was when they built that area….we were all so excited…but the water is hardly ever clear enough to see them unless they are pretty close to the window.

 

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After that, we found a quiet spot to sit as I needed to call Alamo and schedule a pick up for tomorrow. I had a 1 day rental to get us to the port and I wanted to be sure to be picked up as early as possible.

 

We then tried to check in a little early for our ADR at Tusker House, but the lady wouldn’t let us. I saw others going around this lady and checking in early, but she had caught us and told us to wait another 15 minutes. RATS! I was hoping to get seated early so we could leave and take a break. I know had we been able to check in then we would have been seated fairly fast too.

 

 

So we waited in the area and drank some water and watched for the lady to leave so we could check in.

We did finally see the Tusker House CM “watcher” leave her post and we were able to check in a little earlier than “allowed”. We were told to sit down in the waiting area and I positioned my chair to be right where the fan blew. LOL.

 

This area has changed since the last time we had eaten here…but that is because of the new Lion King Theatre I would assume.

 

It wasn’t long and we were called back, so we did get in early…YAY!!!!

 

We got seated and our waitress came over to take our drinks and let us know the characters were close. The place was half empty, which surprised me. So we waited and waited…and they went on break. Darn it! I was hoping to see them first then go get our food.

 

We were eating here for one reason only….River of Lights dining package. I am not a fan of a lot of the food here and Claire eats like a bird unless they serve steak, so money wise, we were basically paying more for the preferred seating area.

 

My little Claire is no longer a fan of character meets. I am sure it’s a phase she is going through, but she didn’t want to have pictures taken. I compromised and said we would take turns. I was to go first.

 

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Then our server came by and insisted we both get in….sorry Claire.

 

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Our server brought us our juice! MMMMM! We love this stuff!!!

 

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Our server asked if we were from Michigan….LOL. We are asked this ALL THE TIME! We said no, we are in Ohio, but right on the border. Evidently we have some sort of “accent”.

 

Goofy came around and it was Claire’s turn.

 

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And then we made a dash to get some food.

 

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We tried a few things, but honestly we only liked the more American type foods.