What. A. Day.
It started early for me as my alarm rang at 5 A.M. Actually – I had two alarms set because I did NOT want to risk sleeping through either. I had my Bible time and hot chocolate and got to the business of making breakfast. We “dined” on ham, scrambled eggs and English muffins and were only a few minutes late of our goal of being in the car at 7:15 A.M.
We were among the first cars in the Animal Kingdom lot. It wasn’t nearly as close to the entrance as visits past. There is a new “preferred parking” zone available for $15 more.
Speaking of parking. Our parking is free because of our Fort Wilderness Campsite reservation. The man at the parking booth didn’t tap John’s band however. He just confirmed that John had one.
Right off the bat, a Cast Member (a/k/a employee) (CM) offered to take our photo.
We were first in line for the tapstiles and were there by 8:05 A.M. We did hair, sunscreen, and took trips to the bathroom (which was not clean – ewwww) until about 8:35 A.M. when they let us in and through the Oasis where we queued up again by the tree of life.
Beautiful parrots flew overhead just before rope drop (RDRD) and that was not one minute before 9:00 A.M., surprisingly.
We booked it to Kilimanjaro Safari. The kids joked I took off so fast with the stroller the little girls’ faces went taut and the guests nearby felt the breeze as I went off. We got separated into three groups and entered KS that way. It was a little off-putting, I think, to some members of my party; but I instructed via text just to get on and enjoy the ride despite being separated.
It was the most entertaining KS ride EVER. The animals were SO active. 
From KS I separated from the group as John waited for everyone else to disembark. I went to the FP+ kiosk to use our borrowed Magic Bands to secure three more rides a piece. Yee. Haw.
There were plenty of choices and I was able to overlap the times from each 5-band group I had.
We then rode Expedition Everest standby.
We started toward Dinosaur when Nan reminded me we wanted to meet Pocahontas.
I had to come up with a system to keep track of so many FP+:
masking tape on our stroller.
We met back up with Kelly and the boys who had enjoyed Dinosaur.
Some of us rode Primeval Whirl with our new FP+ (lame and nauseating) while others rode Triceratops Spin.
The three younger girls got their faces painted.
From there we went to Disney Pals, which may have been our longest wait of the day despite our FP+
We grabbed an early lunch at Flametree BBQ. It was excellent.
After lunch we headed out to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We met Rafiki and Chip and Dale and pet goats. Because traveling 1100 miles and spending $$$ should result in ample goat petting time.
Then Expedition Everest.
Then Kali River Rapids.
Then the 3 P.M. Festival of the Lion King.
Back to Dinosaur to use our FP+. We also used Child Swap on this so that John could stay with little girls while I rode with big kids, and then he went on Dinosaur with Marie and Stewart again.
From there we met Donald Duck and, sadly, missed Dug and Russell from UP. We were sad about that.
We decided to do It’s Tough to Be a Bug ahead of our FP+ times b/c the wait was so short. Then the older kids did another spin on Everest while John took little ones to the Boneyard.
We grabbed dinner at Restaurantosaurus around 5:50 P.M. The park was closing at 6:30, but they did not make us feel rushed one iota. The meat was down right wonderful. I had EXTREMELY LOW EXPECTATIONS based on years of poor reviews. Either I was hungry enough, or that self-serve soda was enough to confuse my senses. I love a toppings bar, too.
We then started shopping around 6:40 P.M. and did not leave the park until 7:20 P.M.
It was SUCH a good day!
We headed home. The kids swam. I uploaded images from at least 3 devices with three more waiting for me to have more time.
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