Hot Rainy and Busy July Part 4

Thursday, July 11

This morning, we take a bus to Animal Kingdom. We looked for animals in the Oasis Exhibits area but the spaces we looked at appeared to be empty this morning. We did see the parrots fly by.

Our first stop was at Starbucks where we got coffees and a breakfast sandwich to share. The tables there were all full so we walked over the bridge and found a table in the Dawa Bar area.

I don't recall what order we did things but know we went to It's Tough to be a Bug, wandered through the Discovery Island Trails (where it appears the renovations are complete), stopped to see the otters, went to Island Mercantile (and returned before we exited the park so I could buy an Avatar themed jigsaw puzzle), rode on Na'vi River (with a fastpass), walked through the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and took a Kilimanjaro Safari.

We were able to secure a lunch reservation at Yak and Yeti, only waiting for a few minutes to be seated. We shared orders of pot stickers, brown rice, and sweet & sour chicken.

In need of air conditioning and looking like bad weather was going to close in on us, we went to the standby line of the Lion King Show which was good as always. While there, I received a notification that my Expedition Everest fastpass had been modified and I could now use the fastpass at a number of other attractions since Everest was down. Given the weather that was on the horizon, this was not a surprise to me.

When we left the theater, the rain was down to a drizzle but there were many puddles around. We decided it was time to leave the park.

After resting a bit back at our room, we decided to head over to Top of the World at Bay Lake Tower. We bused to the Magic Kingdom and took the monorail over to the Contemporary. The escalator from the monorail station was not operating and we were instructed to use the stairwell at the end of the building which empties out on the viewing area of the concourse floor.

We walked over to Bay Lake, had our band scanned and were allowed to proceed to the Top of the World. I was surprised at how empty it was and that all but one window table was occupied. We had a waiter we've had on several prior visits. We ordered drinks and a flatbread pizza to share. The fireworks were scheduled for 9:15 this evening so we stepped outside to watch them.

Once the fireworks were complete, we walked over to the Magic Kingdom and took the bus back to our resort.

On Friday morning, July 12th, we packed up our things, loaded up our car and returned home. It was good to have time at Disney but it was also good to be home again!!