If you missed the first or second installment of this trip report, click on the corresponding number to catch up!

Following a late night in Magic Kingdom and yet another rain storm, we slept in and let our shoes dry before heading off to Animal Kingdom. With so few attractions at the park and the extreme low crowd levels that I’ve mentioned in parts 1 and 2, rope dropping the park was hardly urgent.

We strode into Animal Kingdom in the late morning and walked back to Harambe for the earliest showing of Festival of the Lion King. The park has some unique entertainment with this show being first and foremost. While it shows no signs of stopping I do wonder if they’d ever consider swapping out some of the acts, maybe making it feel a little fresher without having to change the concept of the show. Either way, I’m glad it exists.

Once the show ended we walked over to Harambe Market for lunch. Animal Kingdom’s excellent dining options run deep and this has managed to rise above many other solid options in the park. We love the shrimp rice bowl here. Melissa especially makes a point of getting it on each Disney World trip. The atmosphere there has really grown on me too, as the park is unmatched in terms of signage and little bits of artwork.

We finished our meal and walked toward Kilimanjaro Safaris, stopping to watch this musician play a Kora for a few minutes! I love entertainment that’s roaming around the parks.

After our musical interlude, we walked over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. It was midday but there was next to no line and we hopped on a truck within minutes. I’ve talked plenty on this website about what rides are better at night but haven’t mentioned which rides are better during the day often. Kilimanjaro Safaris tops that list, as the animals set against the blue Florida sky feels right. Here’s a few photos from our ride through.

We completed our Harambe filled early afternoon with a stroll down Gorilla Falls Trail. It was hot but not completely overbearing that day. When that’s the case we always try to fit in a few of Animal Kingdom’s brilliant trails. The gorillas and the landscaping of their habitat is a highlight, but there’s plenty to look at throughout the whole trail. Here’s a few more photos!

A long time had passed since either Melissa or I had been to Conservation Station so we decided to catch a ride on the Wildlife Express Train. I liked the train ride pretty well, although I wouldn’t call it the most exciting. Seeing some of the backstage areas behind Kilimanjaro Safaris is a cool peek behind the curtain.

Conservation Station as a whole is underwhelming. The petting zoo is nice enough and we always like an animation class, but there’s a reason why most guests never make it out to this area of the park. There’s just not enough of a draw (no pun intended). With that said, I’m not sure there’s anything else to do with the area. Developing a great ride or new land here would lead to a crowd bottleneck.

Instead the area is just stuck in limbo. They could do a few minor things to spice up the area – maybe a new animal exhibit or two. But without major park infrastructure changes, I don’t see how they can do much more with the space. And maybe that’s okay. Having an area like this is a nice reprieve if the rest of the park is built out. Hopefully that will be the case soon.

After petting some goats and looking around Conservation Station, we took the train back to Harambe. Since I just brought up park infrastructure and design, the bridge that connects Harambe to Discovery Island is perfectly done and offers some of the best theme park views.

We walked across that bridge and went down a few of the Tree of Life Trails. Seeing the icon up close and touching some of the carvings is always a treat. We also caught these 2 buddies drumming while floating down the river! I hope you’re as happy at work as these guys appeared to be.

All of this exploring works up a thirst! There’s no better spot to quench that than Nomad Lounge. We settled in for some iced teas and churros. Melissa is an iced tea connoisseur and will put these down as fast as the wait staff can get them out to her. I try to keep up. Safe to say that we are very familiar with all of Animal Kingdom’s restroom locations in large part thanks to Nomad Lounge and my small bladder.

Feeling refreshed, we walked over to Pandora for a ride on Flight of Passage. Again, the crowds were low and we waited less than 30 minutes midday for our flight on a banshee. This ride has aged so well, it’s hard to believe we’re nearing 8 years of it being open. Even the preshow has found an awkward spot into our hearts.

We had just a few minutes before close so we quickly walked to Everest to summit the mountain and escape a yeti. Ending an Animal Kingdom day with the coaster has become a tradition for us. It’s an easy ride to hop right back in line if you get through before closing time. Everest is also in the back corner of the park so then I can take my time winding back through Animal Kingdom, taking photos.

On this day, that wandering through Animal Kingdom included a goodbye. This would be the last time we set foot in Dinoland.

I can’t say that the vibe was overly solemn. More of a celebration than a funeral. I’ve been calling for Dinoland, specifically Chester & Hester’s, to get the axe for as long as the blog existed. Seeing it close down is more exciting to me than any nostalgia driven feeling. Ever since Primeval Whirl (a ride I didn’t like) disappeared like a ship in the night, the area served no purpose. So goodnight to that ugly parking lot with an elaborate backstory. May your replacement be far more lush.

Surprisingly, no one else was hanging out in Dinoland (jokes). But there were a few lingerers by the Tree of Life. We joined them, taking some photos of the icon and enjoying a few of the shops in the area before exiting the park. The park is gorgeous and I’m really looking forward to the next step in its evolution, even if that evolution had to kill some dinosaurs.

We exited the park and went to our dinner reservation at Coronado Springs. Toledo has quickly climbed our list of best restaurants at WDW and the meal that night did nothing to dissuade that opinion. Here’s our full review. With full stomachs, we caught a bus back to Disney Springs and then walked to our hotel (Saratoga) from there. Naturally, we were caught in another rain storm before getting to the room and falling asleep.

The next morning we made it Magic Kingdom around 10:00. We had grabbed a virtual queue spot for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure but it wasn’t extremely early so we had time to go enjoy a few rides first. If you learn anything from this trip report, it should be that early September is an extremely quiet crowd time at WDW. I’ll keep hammering that home but case in point: We walked into the park and got in line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Within 20 minutes we were on the ride.

Turns out that if the wait time for Mine Train is only 20 minutes then it’s a pretty great family coaster! Seeing a ride without the filter of an hour+ wait changes things.

With a little more time before our virtual queue spot was called, we rode the PeopleMover, Pirates and saw the birds sing at the Tiki Room. It was a leisurely morning with hardly any waiting and a nice pace. Those are the best kind of mornings at Magic Kingdom. I’m happy (and lucky) to have those experiences in WDW’s castle park because I can find the crowds there to be exhausting sometimes. Seeing the place without masses of people makes my opinion more favorable, and probably more fair. Here’s a few photos from the Tiki Room and Pirates.

Our time had come for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. I’ve already covered the ride with an in-depth review so I’ll keep this simple and just talk about that specific ride through. To be blunt, we both found that experience confounding. I’m pretty good about not reading other reviews or watching videos so we both went in blind and our expectations were heightened by the exceptional queue. Then we got on the ride and were so thrown off by the pacing of the ride and the (lack of) plot that we immediately decided we needed to go back the next day to see if our initial reaction was right.

I generally have a rule that I need to experience a ride or show twice before reviewing it. That’s especially true if I didn’t like it initially. Sometimes that’s unachievable but we were lucky to have a few days left in the trip and decided to come back the next day.

It took us a little while to get through the queue and we were really hungry at that point, so we left for Epcot. It was our last day of the dining plan and we’d saved some snack credits to use at Food & Wine. We both ordered Lobster Tails, ate them and then immediately decided to go back for another.

If you want everyone in Connections Cafe to look at you, just walk through the glorified cafeteria with two Lobster Tails. I can confirm that works and is much easier, and legal-er, than other ways to get people’s attention.

We went on a quick walk through Epcot before returning to Magic Kingdom for our Tron virtual queue spot. If I remember right, this was one of the last weeks that Tron had a virtual queue and it worked in our favor on that day. That was our first time riding it during the day. Unsurprisingly, it is better at night but still a good amount of fun during the day. This may be a little contrarian but I think Tron gets a bad rep because of how closely it followed Cosmic Rewind. No, it’s not as good of an attraction as that. But it’s still very fun and extremely cool.

We walked across the park after riding the coaster. Not knowing how much longer the Liberty Belle would be an option, I wanted to take a ride along the river. It was very hot at that point and sometimes ideas are better in theory than in reality. We persevered through the perspiration and even got some decent photos along the way.

We capped off our Magic Kingdom day with a visit to the Country Bear Theater. I mentioned last installment how my first viewing of the show was not favorable. This second viewing was when the attraction started to win me over. We saw it with a nearly full theater and the crowd was laughing and swaying along. I still wasn’t completely convinced but seeing people interact with my bears so favorably went a long way in me accepting the attraction.

It was nearly time for our dinner reservation at the Grand Floridian and we exited the theater to a complete downpour. That’s where we’ll pick up next installment!

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