Second morning for a lovely sunrise! Look how pretty the lights are. I wish more people would decorate their room windows.
this morning, however, there wasn't as much time to linger since we wanted to get to Animal Kingdom by opening at 8:00.
the curtains contain a pattern of the A-frame of the main building!
Walking to the bus with the color still going
The park hours today are 8-5, so we won't get to stay until dark to see all the lights. Sadly, this park only stays open after dark on the weekends right now.
The turnstiles were already open when we arrived at 7:30 and walk back to Pandora to pretty much walk-on Flights of Passage (with 6 foot intervals and practically everyone entering the park doing the exact same thing. But we never stopped moving until the last five minutes.
Flights of Passage is typically one of those rides that you either get to rope drop and ride immediately, get lucky enough to snag a fast pass for (fast pass is not currently operating), or you wait HOURS.
I'd never even walked through the long standby line queue because we'd always managed to book fastpasses.
Some photos along the walk
The ride itself is just really impressive. Your ride vehicle, which envelops you, feels like it's breathing underneath you as you soar around on its back. You also wear these goggles to enhance the virtual reality. I don't know what tech the video below used to get any kind of a clear shot, but it's pretty good, at least at what you see, but not what you feel, or the wind in your face, or the pitch as you dive and weave.
We traipsed back across the park (past a totally empty Tree of Life pavilion) to walk over to the other thrill ride, Expedition Everest, and walked on there as well. Before official park opening.
By then, we were hungry for breakfast and found a totally empty spot right along the river where the different character caravans were coming by to eat breakfast.
still empty!
the storm expected later today was finally going to really cool things off for the rest of the week.
We saw a number of people on Thursday and Friday wearing these through the parks!
Sammi and Jason got there in time for lunch. This is the plant based sausage roll po-boy that was delicious. The parks are really catching up with the plant based options at a lot of the eateries, compared to years past.
After lunch we went over to the bird show. It had previously been UP themed, hence the Russell and Dug statuary out front. But in the pandemic it's been greatly scaled back without characters and just a couple of animal behaviorists maintaining social distancing on stage. But the birds are always lovely.
Irene, Bob's friend, had joined us again today and has a disability pass that allows her party to ride at set times, kind of the like not-working-right-now fast pass system, so she brought us along in the afternoon to ride Flights of Passage again.
See that sweater I'd worn in the early morning and wrapped around my waist when it warmed up ahead of the storm? That got me into trouble on the ride. Apparently the knot was holding the sensor at my waist in a funky way which led the cast member who stupidly did NOT know what he was doing to tell me I needed to move forward in my seat. I was as forward as I could possibly be. The sweater issue didn't hit me until he literally rammed his shoulder into the back of the seat to get the sensor to show ready, which literally made it almost impossible to breathe for the whole ride. By the time it was over and I could get out of the thing, I was nauseous and felt like a round of vertigo was coming on. When we emerged it was raining but still super muggy and I knew I was going to pass out if I didn't sit down and fast. We spent the last hour with me nearly green, holding ice behind my ears and trying to get enough strength to walk through the downpour to Sammi and Jason's parking spot wayyyyy out in the back of the parking lot.
they got a number of snacks, but I couldn't really do anything except sip on water and regain some balance.
Luckily, knowing the rain was coming, I was able to get into my raincoat and walk without feeling like I was going to end up face first in a puddle by the time everyone else had finished the snacks.
one last soggy photo at the tree before the slog to the car
(P.S. I also packed both ponchos and the umbrella you see above on the crew. I am nothing if not prepared for weather. Just not vertigo.)
We picked up a bite at the Contemporary and I turned in really early, still feeling a bit off and knowing Thursday was a long day at the Studios, and day 4 of walking many, many miles, so I needed the rest.
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