August Trip Report: Disney Day 6

Cast:
Us
Jen
Joe
H - Just turned 2 in June

My parents
John
Mary

We met John, Kelsey, J and my parents at Mara for a last breakfast goodbye before they left. After breakfast and goodbyes, the five of us remaining head to Animal Kingdom. The bus was there moments after we arrived and we were at the park quickly.

We head towards the entrance and were greeted with a wall of people...the bag check lines were exceptionally *long*. Not really sure what was happening there. We rode the safari to get another view of the animals. After the first time H heard the term “termite mound”, every time he saw one he would ask me “what is that?” and I’d answer. He asked me twice on this ride. When we came to the third one, he proudly pointed and called out “I see termite mound!” I think one of the most amazing things about this trip, beyond just the sheer enjoyment that H got out of it, was watching the way his conversational skills exploded!

Leaving the safari we passed a drummer outside the “warden station”. He encouraged H to drum with him and to dance, and their interaction was wonderful. Henry loved every moment of this and we were thrilled to have gotten to see this interaction. This Cast Member definitely was one of the ones that makes going to Disney World something we continue to enjoy.

I love the store in Harambe and we enjoyed checking out the sweets shoppe attached to it, although we were disappointed that they no longer offered the “animal droppings”. My parents picked up some chocolate fudge and I picked up a Mickey shaped chili chocolate bark which was amazing (definitely had a kick to it, so if you don’t like spice, stay away), and we picked up a few other items, including the Cooking Safari with Mickey cookbook that I had been looking forward to getting.

Joe and I had fastpasses for Everest, so my parents sat with H for a rest in the relative shade outside the Yak and Yeti quick service. I love Everest, so I was happy that we were able to get a ride in on this trip. Our timing was a bit off and we cut it pretty close to get to our fastpasses for the Finding Nemo the Musical show. Another first for everyone except me. I love the concept of this show and find it to be a fun way to spend a little bit of time.

Afterwards we made our way out of the park to get to Sanaa for lunch. We had never been to Kidani Village before, and as much as I *love* Jambo House, I definitely loved Kidani Village. It just felt homey to me. I don’t know how else to explain it. Still amazing, and beautiful and incredible, but just comfy. When we checked in at Sanaa we asked if there was any chance to get a table near the windows so that H could watch the animals while we ate. They weren’t sure it would be possible because of the size of our party and said it might be a while. Although disappointed, I opted in favor of being seated more quickly because we had plans later that were time sensitive.

When we were called to be seated a few minutes later, I was pleasantly surprised to find we had window seats and we definitely had a meal with a view of zebra, giraffe, ostrich and crowned cranes. Fantastic. Our server, Victoria, was great! Very knowledgeable about the food and very friendly. The food here was some of my absolute favorite of the trip. We split the bread service and got all 5 breads and 9 accompaniments. They were incredible! I could have ordered a second one of those and just had that for lunch! Joe and I also split the salad sampler. I really liked the watermelon and fennel salad, but found the other two just alright. For lunch I had the spiced lamb and butter chicken with basmati rice. The butter chicken was absolutely incredible. Joe and I split the dessert trio, too. Also quite delicious. H was tired and fell asleep part way through lunch, missing out on the amazing view.

After lunch we head to Disney Springs for a special treat my parents had gotten for H (and for Joe and I, too): La Nouba. This would be their second time seeing it and a first for the rest of us. H loves all things music and movement, so he was really engaged throughout the whole show. He got a little hesitant a few times when it got really dark, but otherwise he *loved* every second of it. Because he’s under 3 he was a lap seat. He moved between our four laps, but spent a huge amount of the time standing in front of me and dancing. After the trapeze artists (which were a highlight for me, too) were done H turned to Joe and I with a big grin and said “My turn?!” We all also really enjoyed the trampoline artists.

After La Nouba we did a little bit of shopping (I was on the hunt for a classy Mickey ring I had seen earlier in the week but couldn’t find in my size) and checked out some of the newer stores, and then head back to the hotel for a late dinner at Mara.

We had great service and great food, even when there were waits, at Mara the whole time we were there, except for this night. I ordered our food (a burger for Joe and another African Stew for me) and I was given a pager to go sit down. The line was significantly shorter than the other night we had eaten at Mara, so I wasn’t too worried about how long the wait would be. However, a decent amount of time later I was wondering why we hadn’t gotten paged yet when it went off. I went up to get our food only to discover that I was not paged because they had our food ready, I was paged because they did not have African Stew. Something which might have been good to know fifteen minutes prior when I’d ordered it. They offered me two other dishes (curried lobster something and lamb stew), neither of which I particularly wanted, but they got impatient with me when I hesitated so I just picked the lamb stew because while I like curry, it has to be done well and if it’s too heavy handed with the spices I’m not a huge fan. They come back with my lamb stew (not sure where they went to get it, one of the other restaurants?) and I think great, I can bring our food back to the table….except that now we’re waiting on Joe’s burger still and my lamb stew was put under a heat lamp. I was gone so long that Joe actually came looking for me. The food was still good (even the lamb stew, which it turned out was extremely curried), it just wasn’t the dining experience I’d kinda hoped for.

Next Up: Magic Kingdom and Epcot