Animal Kingdom Lodge Stay

Recently spent two nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We were surprised our room was ready when we arrived early in the morning.  Our plan was to head directly to Animal Kingdom so we kept to that plan and did not go directly to our room.

A quick bus trip to Animal Kingdom brought us there about 5 minutes before early entry was to begin but they were already letting people into the park.  The crowds were so light this morning that I'm sure we would not have had an overly long wait for Avatar but chose to walk onto the empty Navi River ride.  We grabbed some breakfast from Starbucks and, by then, the park was open to all but the crowds could not be found.  We were able to have a safari, ride Expediiton Everest and Dinosaur and view It's Tough to Be a Bug - all before 11 a.m.  

It was hot and sticky so we decided to go cool off in our room and decide what we were going to do to lunch.  We took the bus back to Animal Kingdom, retrieved our bags and settled into our room.  We had a Savannah View room but it was somewhat of a disappointment.  For large parts of the two days we wee there, our Savannah View was just that - a view of the Savannah.  Occasionally, a couple/few giraffes would wander into view as did a few zebras but, until the second night, when the giraffes stayed put for quite some time, the animals would not linger long before they moved on to other areas we could not see from our room.

We decided on a reservation at Sci-Fi Dine-In - we hadn't been there in quite a while.  Another bus ride and we are quickly inside Hollywood Studios.  The standby lines here aren't bad and crowds here are also lower than usual.  With time before our reservation, we rode Tower of Terror.  After checking in for lunch, we waited about 15-20 minutes before we were seated in our front of the theater car.  My lunch of salad was huge and very filling.  My spouse enjoyed his burger and I shared a few of his fries.  After lunch, the standby line time for Rise of the Resistance and Toy Story Mania were about equal but spouse wanted to ride Toy Story Mania so we went there.  As usual, I did not score as well as my spouse.

It's still very hot and humid so we opt for some relaxing time in our air conditioned room.  We weren't hungry for dinner so visited Victoria Falls for drinks and a cheese board before heading back to or room for the evening.