DISNEY WORLD 2022 - Day 3

 Disney World 2022 - Day 3 - Animal Kingdom/ Mickey's Not So Scary Day

We woke up around 6:30 AM

We wanted to get an early start on this day. We were going to visit Animal Kingdom park. Surprisingly, I had NEVER been to this park. We always choose to go to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios parks instead, but this time I was finally going to go to Animal Kingdom! 

We also had tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party later that night. I had never been to that either, so this would be a fun day of firsts for me! So exciting to explore new Disney things :)

So our plan was to get to Animal Kingdom as early as possible, and try to do as much as possible before it got too hot, and before it started raining. Then come back to the resort and rest during the afternoon. And finally go to Magic Kingdom in the evening for the Halloween Party. It was going to be a really long day but we were ready for it! 

We left our room before 8 AM and we walked over the bridge where I dropped my phone charger in the water the night before. Look at this TINY space it fell into. Unbelievable! Truthfully, I was still a little mad that had happened. 

Here is what my beloved phone charger looks like. The poor thing is ruined now sitting on the bottom of the lake. 

That charger was really fast at re-charging my phone. I have several portable phone chargers at home, but that one was my best one and my favorite one. 

Just to give the phone charger story a happy ending, I did buy an identical charger as soon as I got home. It has already arrived and I am happy. I am healed now, my problem has been solved. But I will always remember my poor lost charger in the bottom of the Polynesian Resort lake.  

OK, moving on...........we went to the little bus stop to wait for the shuttle bus. On this morning it was taking forever for any busses to come by. After we waited about 25 minutes without seeing any busses at all, Lisa and I decided to call an Uber. As soon as we were ready to push the Uber button, an Animal Kingdom bus came by. 

 We cancelled the uber plans and got on the bus. About 40 people crammed into this shuttle bus with us for the 15 minute ride to Animal Kingdom. 

I snapped this pic inside of the crowded bus, but looking at it, It's really weird that it looks like it's full of only men. 

You can't see any of the women and children sitting in the seats, LOL!

Finally, we arrived at Animal kingdom park.

After we entered the park, I got my first look at the Tree Of Life. 

It is the centerpiece of the park. It's really HUGE!!! 

there was a park photographer there, so we did a quick photoshoot.

They direct you how to pose. This one is a little blurry. 

I love this one!

this was an Extra Magic photo. The photographer told us where to look and then later inserted "Kevin". 

Kevin is a female bird from the movie UP. 

I think the photographer asked us to do a "tiger claw" or something like that. Kinda cheesy, but its all in fun. 

This one is an Extra Magic fail. 

Sad that we aren't pointing in the right place. If anyone has photoshop and could fix this photo for me, 

I would reeealllly appreciate it! 

It could have been sooooo cute!!!

As we wandered around the park, it was a beautiful morning!

The park was very nice. I am impressed with it.

When we got to the land of Pandora (from the movie AVATAR)

I was amazed!

WOW! They did a fantastic job with the theming for this area.

These huge mountains and waterfalls were towering over us as we walked through Pandora. They were hundreds of feet high, and that is real water. It was quite amazing. 

I used my DAS Pass and booked a ride time for Na'vi River Journey. 

Its a ride themed by the movie AVATAR, and I was very excited to go on this ride. We had a while to wait for our ride time so we wandered around Animal Kingdom park, and took in the scenes. 

We stopped for a quick photo when we saw a Photographer.

When our wait time was up, we were able to get on the Na'vi River Journey with about a 10 minute wait. 

The ride was spectacular! 

We rode in boats, like these (LOL! More boats!) 

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The scenery and theming was just amazing. Everything sparkled and moved around. 

It was really like we were dropped into a scene of the movie. 

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The pic below is a pic I took. WOW! I finally got a good pic indoors while moving on a ride. 

The pink things fluttered and floated around us. It was beautiful

That was a very good ride. 

Next I set up a wait time for Flight Of Passage. This is another AVATAR ride. 

I heard it was really good and I was so excited to finally get to ride it!!

the wait time was really long, but Lisa and I entertained ourselves.

We stopped in this place and got a quick bite to eat. It was still early and they were still serving breakfast. 

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Finally it was our turn to ride Flight of Passage. 

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This is inside, going through the ride line. It went very fast. 

Next we went into this area. We had a "briefing" on our mission for the ride. 

We finally got to the actual ride. 

We had to sit on these things. 

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When we were all seated, we had to put 3D glasses on. The screen thing in front of us opened, and we were looking at a giant movie screen. 

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The ride simulated that we were flying on a banshee through the land of  Pandora. 

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It was breathtaking! The ride lasted over 4 minutes and it was one of the BEST rides I have ever been on in my life. 

It really felt just like I was there! I really loved it. 

After Flight Of Passage, we wandered around the park some more, and we spent about an hour looking around the gift shops. 

Next we decided to meet Mickey and Minnie! 

We walked around some more and we saw beautiful flowers throughout the park. It really was a nice park. 

We saw an anteater!!!! I have never seen an anteater before :) That was cool

More beautiful Animal Kingdom scenery

And a final picture on our way out of the park. 

We left Animal Kingdom around 1 PM and made it back to our resort before 2 

When we got back to our room, I went out to have a smoke. 

Remember this Tiki guy from my first night at the resort? Several of us had been smoking over in this area, because they had blocked off the regular smoking area due to construction. 

We were hanging out here, and we all made sure to clean up our cigarette butts. The resort was spotless, and I noticed the smokers were very respectful.

On this day, when I went out to smoke, The area was closed off. 

Every day, they blocked off more and more of this side of the resort with construction barriers. 

They are building a huge Disney Vacation Club high rise tower in this area. 

That was fine, but where was I supposed to smoke? 

The area where I was standing to take this picture was in a very much used walkway. So many people using this sidewalk. Surely they didn't want me to stand there on a busy sidewalk and smoke? 

I asked one of the maintenance men as he drove by on a golf cart. Where should we smoke? 

He said we can smoke anywhere we want, just be respectful of other guests. 

So I walked around the less traveled paths on this side of the resort and smoked. It was kind of a pain in the ass, because people with little kids would walk close to me and sometimes I would have to move very quickly to avoid people. 

And I don't move very quickly.

I was having a really hard time finding places to smoke and still try to stay away from other guests. 

This was now blocked off too. 

Then I had a brilliant idea. I just stayed on my patio when I wanted to smoke. I used an old cup for an ashtray, and I made sure to keep the area spotless. We had a giant hedge separating us from the walking path.  No one knew I was there because of the hedge, and  I could sit out there even if it was raining. 

Very brilliant! It worked out perfectly for the rest of my stay. Lucky me! 

Here is my view from my new "smoking lounge". 

I know that smoking on my patio was a special circumstance, and I probably will never get to do that again. The construction was moving things around so quickly, the resort hadn't had any time to figure out where to send the smokers. I am sure that very soon there will be a designated spot somewhere out of the way for smokers with rooms on that side of the Polynesian.  

Smoking aside, it was time for Lisa and I to get ready for the Mickeys Not so Scary Halloween Party! 

This Party was taking place at the Magic Kingdom resort. The resort closed for regular guests that night at 6 PM, and the Halloween Party started at 7 PM. We had to purchase tickets to get into the Party, and we bought out tickets months ago as soon as they went on sale. 

We had a dinner reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern at 6:30 PM. We took the monorail to the Park and used our Magic Bands to enter the park at around 6 PM. 

I remembered to get a pic of the entrance of Magic Kingdom Park. 

The sky was turning very gray as we entered the park.

And just as we got inside the park and started walking down Main Street, it started raining. 

We passed by a sign that said the Halloween Party was sold out for that night. 

We arrived at Liberty Tree Tavern and took refuge from the rain. It was very warm and cozy inside. 

Our meal was amazing. They serve all you can eat homestyle cooking. 

Soup, Salad, Pot Roast, Turkey, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Macaroni & Cheese, Dinner Rolls with soft Butter.............

All comfort foods, and it was a perfect hot dinner on a rainy night. 

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We ate slowly and we stayed as long as we could. We were hoping the rain would stop, but it just kept on raining.

When we were done eating, we put on raincoats and ponchos, I got my umbrella out.............

And we ventured out into the rain.

We were each given a candy bag for the halloween party. Lisa got a really nice fabric bag, but I was happy with this plastic bag. It was raining and I didn't want my candy to get wet.

They had areas set up all over the park with Cast Members giving out candy.

They had huge barrels and as you walked by they put handfuls in your bag. 

Lisa and I walked around and Trick-Or-Treated for awhile.

We rode the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride and the Peter Pan ride. 

We Trick-Or-Treated some more.................

We found a spot to watch the Halloween parade, but it was still raining and they cancelled the parade. 

Bummer. 

Instead of the parade, they drove 3 cars past us that were full of characters.

 

It was such a sad little parade in the rain. 

We trick-Or-Treated some more. We got soooo much candy! 

At 9 PM we went over to the castle to watch the fireworks. 

We found a pretty good spot. It was still raining, but the laser and fireworks show was very good. 

I had on my poncho with my hood up, I was holding my umbrella up, I was getting drenched, but I still managed to take some great pictures of the show

Too bad it was raining! It was a very good show, but I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't soaked.  

After the fireworks we went into the Confectionary and spent some time looking around and shopping for more goodies to take home. 

Since it was raining, the store was full of people and the floor was very wet and slippery again. 

We tried to hang out in there as long as we could, waiting for the rain to stop. 

By around 10PM we decided to give up and go back to the resort. 

So sad, our Halloween Party was kind of a bust because of the rain. 

As we exited the gate they handed out these posters. Somehow I managed to keep mine dry. It is going to get a frame and I'll find a place on our wall to hang it. 

We left the park and got on the monorail. We were back in our room by 10:30

We each took a warm shower, and put on dry comfy pajamas. 

My bed felt SOOOOO good. My feet were killing me after 2 days of so much walking.

Tomorrow we were going to spend the day at EPCOT! Well, we were going to spend as much of the day as possible at EPCOT. The weather didn't look good for the next day at all. It would be clear and hot for the first half of the day, but very rainy after around 2 PM. 

Our plan was to get up early and do as much as we cold before the rain came in.

Day 4 is HERE!