8 Nov 2023
Our morning started like yesterday, with a bus then Skyliner ride over to Riviera, where we had breakfast reservations at Topolino’s Terrace:
An “appetizer” bucket of croissants and muffins:
My waffles were so fluffy and tasty, and the syrup had hints of citrus- yum! Plus, they had POG!
I was a little thrown by the price ($50/plate!), until I realized this is a character breakfast:
Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy Duck milled around visiting each table. Huh. Unexpected and not really my thing, but the kids at the other tables seemed to enjoy it, and it is a more accessible way to meet characters that doesn’t involve going into the parks.
After breakfast, we checked out the views from the terrace:
Then we hopped the Skyliner + a bus over to Animal Kingdom Lodge to hunt some animals!
There are 4 different areas, though to be honest, I’m not really sure where the boundaries to each are. We started at Jamba House and I tried to shoot at least one picture of each animal I saw, but a lot of the antlered guys looked similar to me.
This is an elond:
This is an elond with one horn:
Giraffes!
We spotted a total of 5, but only a couple were close enough for pictures:
Mid-range giraffe:
Great egret:
Flamingos!
I like how they tuck their noses in:
Stretching!
Look how colorful their underwings are!!!
From a distance, this looked like a pile of feathers, but my super-zoom lens showed it’s actually a spoonbill!
White ibis, pulling a flamingo:
A pack of ibis… ibes? ibises?
This elond wandered over to the flamingo fence:
He was rather derpy:
ok, very derpy!
Ankole cattle:
Same guys from Kidani Village:
Giraffe:
I’m not sure who this guy is:
Zebra!
This guy’s tail looks like it’s been braided!
Gemsbok:
Wildebeest:
Giraffe nuzzles:
Ostrich:
Free-range animals:
Hungry giraffes:
Loki:
Marabou stork:
These guys are huge! Like, 4-5′ tall!
Crowned crane:
“Flying”
Zebra:
I appreciate this guy chilling in his shady spot:
Zebra pair!
Chunky deer (aka Waterbuck):
Impala?
We spent close to 3 hours wandering around, plus an hour or so of transportation time and we were getting hungry, so we started heading toward Old Key West for lunch, but, since we had to pass through Disney Springs, I made a short caffeine detour to grab a gelato affegato- espresso over coffee gelato (you can choose any flavor, but coffee makes the most sense), and Matt tried out a POG gelato, which was sweet and tropically:
And, since the line was short and in the shade, we ate our gelatos while waiting in the line for cookies at Gideon’s:
Peanut butter for Matt, banana bread for me- Matt’s cookie was definitely the better of the 2, but mine was still decent, and we only had to wait about 15 minutes. Since we had other snacks we wanted to try, the cookies went into my backpack after a taste-test bite so we’d have room for some Key Lime Dole whip (and an impulse slice of Key Lime Pie):
Matt liked the Dole whip more than me- I thought it tasted kinda cleaner-y, though that improved after a few bites. I enjoyed the pie, but it wasn’t really Matt’s favorite.
Then we headed back to the Contemporary to watch the fireworks one last time (and take more pictures of the monorail!)
Looking down on the official viewing area:
We’re a few floor above that, and there are several more floors above us:
A laser show before the fireworks:
Pretty sure there are snowflakes projected on the castle:
So, apparently the big camera doesn’t do much better on fireworks than the phone camera:
But, it can zoom in, so that’s cool:
Zooming all the way out, I could just barely fit the castle and fireworks in the same frame:
Then, it was back to our hotel so I could get a good night sleep before flying home. I was taking the shuttle back to the airport and, like last time, I was given a pick-up time almost 4 hours before my flight, which is way more time than I needed. So I tried to change my flight info so I could get a later pick-up (which is what I did last time), but I kept getting an error message. Lame.
9 Nov 2023
Last time I took the shuttle, I got a text with my shuttle’s information so I could track its location, but this time I only had a boarding pass. Strange, until my shuttle ended up being a bus. Huh. Not sure how they decide what type of vehicle to send, but there were about a dozen people already on board, so maybe there were just a lot of flights at this time?
Even though my bus made an extra stop at the other airport terminal before dropping the rest of us off, I was still though security and at my gate exactly an hour after the bus picked me up. Note to me: as long as I’m traveling with just a carry-on, I’m giving them false flight information for a later departure, so I don’t have to wake up quite as early!