A Day at Animal Kingdom

A yummy Dole Whip to share.

We arrived at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom even before it opened at 9 a.m. on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and headed straight for Pandora, the park's land based on the movie "Avatar."

Pandora wasn't open when we visited WDW two years before, so we were looking forward to some new rides. Edith and I rode Flight of Passage first thing (although "first thing" still meant an hour or two wait). It's an intense 3-D ride, kind of like Epcot's Soarin' except you're on a bicycle-like seat instead of a glider. Edith hated it, and I enjoyed it much more when I rode it again in the afternoon so I could concentrate on the effects instead of comforting a scared daughter! (This was one of the few rides that Atticus was too short for.)

Outside of Pandora, neither Edith nor Atticus much cared for the Dinosaur ride -- and really, neither did I. I think I rode it when we went to Disney World in 2006, but it was broken on our Animal Kingdom day in 2016, so I didn't remember much of it at all. Luckily, we all enjoyed Pandora's Na'vi River Journey (new to us all) and the Finding Nemo musical. And the kids liked the safari of course -- and the Dole Whip snack!

We stayed til 7 or so, taking a walk through Pandora at night and then watching some of the special effects on the park's centerpiece tree. I was surprised to stay so late -- the park closed at 8 -- when we left when it was still daylight two years ago.

Pandora