When we got done with our snack/drinks in Pandora, we needed to figure out what we could do next. We had some time before our Na'Vi lightning lane reservation. We looked at wait times on the Disney app and it seemed that the ride "Dinosaur" had a not too terrible wait time for the standby line, so we headed over toward Dinoland USA...
Before we went to stand in line, Doug refreshed his app to see if the time had changed. What had been like a 20 minute wait shot up to over 60 minutes by the time we walked over to Dinoland. Ugh.
We didn't want to mess with our lightning lane for Na'Vi, so we decided not to go on it. It just wasn't worth it to us.
At 10AM, we booked a lightning lane reservation for just Doug and Briana for Expedition Everest for a window between 1:30PM and 2:30PM. I decided to pass on it (I did ride it a couple times when Bri was 7) because I remember the big drops it had and I was a bit nervous about my neck/shoulder, especially after my experience with Space Mountain. It is a more intense rollercoaster than some of the others in Disney.
We decided to head back toward Pandora.
We saw Kevin on the way back (from "Up")...
We stopped for a few minutes to look at the otters swimming on the Discovery Islands Trails.
We finally made it back to Pandora...
We found a place to sit for a few minutes before our lightning lane reservation was active. I overheard a woman who was very upset. She was yelling at one of the AK employees. She had a quiet young child holding her hand. She said she had been at the park since first thing in the morning and they had only ridden one ride. All the standby lines (for the prime rides) were ridiculously long at that point. She was pretty frustrated.
At 10:51AM, the line for Flight of Passage was already 3.5 hours...
We luckily were able to walk right on to that ride with our individual lightning lane around 9AM.
The crowds that week were insane.
I just felt bad for her and for her kid - it is just how I am wired. They just didn't know how crazy it was going to be there.
I tried to shake off what I had heard and went toward the next ride "Na'Vi River Journey" (the pic below is an internet image)...
The ride was really beautiful...
I'm not sure I would wait 2 hours for a four and a half minute ride - even as lovely as it was.
Our reservation for Tusker House wasn't for another hour, so we decided to check out "Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail"...
Listen to all the birds singing...
It was getting quite warm at the point and we were looking forward to sitting down, enjoying some air conditioning and taking a breath for a minute...
Tusker House offers a delicious buffet...
We did not schedule any character greetings while we were at Disney, so it was an added bonus when we got to see a few of our favorite friends while we were eating...
I told Briana and Doug to be a bit careful with filling their plates with food because they had a rollercoaster ride scheduled for later. Yeah - they didn't listen. Heh. It's hard to not want to try a little bit of everything.
After lunch, we took a slow walk over to Asia...
Doug and Bri posing in front of Expedition Everest...
Doug was less than thrilled having to ride it.
He was actually thinking of backing out and letting Bri ride it on her own.
Asia...
Briana leading Doug to the ride...
I found a little curb to sit on while they went to the ride. Doug was still on the fence about getting on the ride. He was still a bit full and he didn't really feel like riding a big coaster. He got into the line and was going to decide if he would ditch at the last minute. I was people watching as they got in line.
I tried to text him and got nothing back. I started realizing that Briana probably talked him into getting on the coaster with her. And that is exactly what happened! They both survived the experience. Briana LOVED it. Doug tolerated it. He said he closed his eyes most of the time.
This is the photo that was captured...
Poor Doug. I have to say I was laughing hysterically at him again. He wasn't digging any of these big rides but he was still going on them for his kid! And Briana always looks freaking perfect in these photo captures - cool, calm and collected!
At that point, we decided we were good for the day. It was hot. It was super crowded. We were tired. It was time to head out. I think it was around 2:30PM.
We jumped on a shuttle to our car...
Briana captured these lovely sunset photos from the room...
Doug went and got us takeout from Steakhouse 71 for dinner and brought it to the room. I didn't take one photo of our meal! I had a Caesar salad and some crab cakes.
Here are some photos from the internet...
Dinner was quite yummy.
After dinner, we watched the MK fireworks again...
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