Ok, so I know you’re looking at this post and saying to yourself, “Hmmm…Day 3 of a Disney Trip Report? I don’t seem to recall there was a trip report… Oh wait! Yes, I kind of remember this trip report but it was SOOOOOOO long ago that it was started that I don’t even remember what happened during days 1 and 2!” I’m super sorry about that, you guys! I moved to a new place at the beginning of this month and there’s been one issue after another and I was too grouchy pants to complete a full post! Luckily, if you’ve forgotten what’s happened up until now, you can click
HERE for Day 1
HERE for Day 2- Part 1
HERE for Day 2- Part 2
HERE for Day 2- Part 3

So, at the end of Day 2, we left Animal Kingdom at night (which was beautiful!) and headed back to Pop Century to get some sleep.

Day 3- Animal Kingdom I didn’t have any trouble getting the boys up and ready for Day 3. We were heading back to Animal Kingdom. Zadrin was excited about riding Expedition Everest again, and Zethan was excited about buying a dinosaur…even though we already had 2 of the exact same dinosaurs at home in the bottom of a toy box that no one had even touched for years now. But it’s his vacation too and if he wants to spend his souvenir money on another dinosaur, then so he shall! The park was opening at 9:00 that morning so we got ready and were about to walk out the door at around 8:15, but when I opened the door to the room we all stopped short. It was raining.

It wasn’t a hard, hellacious rain. It was just a soft, steady stream. One of those that you can’t even hear when you’re inside, but just enough to get you drenched if you’re gonna be walking around in it for a while- you know, like we were about to do! But no big deal, I brought ponchos for the boys and an umbrella for myself. I’m quite hot-natured and I learned a few years back that if I wear a poncho I still end up wet from the sweating going on underneath my poncho. Plus, I had my DSLR camera and I needed to make sure I didn’t get it wet. So before we stepped out of the room, I grabbed the rain gear, and put my camera in a waterproof bag. I was hoping the rain would stop later on. The boys actually opted to wear their jackets that I brought from home instead of the ponchos, but even if I had brought myself a jacket, there was no way I was going to wear it. It wasn’t cold to me at all. I thought it felt great! The umbrella was way better than wearing a poncho or a jacket.

Some people complain when it rains while they’re at Disney World, but I love it! It tends to drive people away from the parks, therefore making the lines for the attractions shorter! I already follow a touring plan to avoid long lines anyway, but the rain makes the waits even shorter! We got to Animal Kingdom and even though Zethan was bugging me to go get his dinosaur first (in Dinoland), we were gonna head to Expedition Everest first since that would get a long line quickly. We got to the park about 10 minutes before rope drop, so we found a spot very close to the rope that was in place near the Tree of Life. There weren’t many people in the park yet because of the early morning rain.

Now, I like this park. But on this trip, we had a short list of things we wanted to do here. Basically we just wanted to do Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, the boys were gonna play at The Boneyard since Zethan has never played there and Zadrin was a wee tot the last time that he played there. Yes, my 14 year old still was cool with running around The Boneyard and digging for dinosaur bones! The Magic of Disney! 🙂 And then we were going to ride Kali River Rapids because we didn’t ride it last year. Well, the rain situation knocked out The Boneyard and Kali River Rapids…but we hoped the rain would clear up before we left the park to do these attractions. We weren’t staying all day. We planned to meet my Disney Facebook group friend Deb at Splitsville in Downtown Disney later on in the day.

A few minutes before 9:00, a Cast Member made an announcement that when the the rope was lowered there was to be no running, shoving, yada yada, safety, safety, peace and order. For those of you who aren’t aware, yes, this happens sometimes. People take off running or trying to get ahead of others to get in line for a popular attraction or to get a FastPass. Disney frowns upon this. Anywho, I was listening to the announcement but the only part I paid close attention to was the part where the Cast Member said that Expedition Everest was going to open late due to the weather. We all looked at each other and I did a mental “D’oh!!” Zethan was happy because he decided this meant we should go get his dinosaur first. I prefer to get our souvenirs on the way out of the park, but Zethan insisted he would hold the bag and dinosaur if we got it earlier. I had to burst his bubble though. Fastpasses were still being offered for Everest so we were still headed there first to get a Fastpass, then we would figure out what we were going to do from there. Since there was no time given for when Everest would open and they apparently had already been testing it, it was possible for it to be open shortly after we walked to the entrance of the ride.

Just like the night before, we got to Expedition Everest and it was closed. A CM standing at the entrance let everyone standing there know that the rain makes it take longer to get the roller coaster going and pass all safety tests, but it would be open before 10:00 as long as all tests were successful. The fastpasses were for 10:00-11:00. It seemed like a waste to get a FP when everyone here was getting one right now. Basically, this could equate to a long fastpass line and possibly a shorter standby line at 10:00. So I made the decision to not get a fastpass and we would go to Dinoland until Everest opened. I suggested we ride Dinosaur again but Zethan said he didn’t want to ride a second time. He was focused on that darn dinosaur. Zadrin wanted to ride again so he rode solo while me and Zethan went to a shop where he could buy his Carnotaurus. Dinosaur only had a 5 minute wait, so we wouldn’t have to wait long for Zadrin. By now, Zethan wanted his poncho on so I talked him into walking the trail where the dinosaur statues were. I took a few pictures with my phone.

There’s a Hidden Mickey on this dinosaur!!

Finally I let Zethan get his dinosaur. The CM who helped us got extra bags and triple bagged the dinosaur because he said, “These guys don’t do well in water.” Oh great. He said if it got wet it would start to “mess up.” After getting the dinosaur prepared for rainy travel, we went to the shop at the exit of Dinosaur to wait for Zadrin. We didn’t have long to wait and then I got Zadrin’s ride photo added to our Attractions+ card.

That’s Zadrin in the back row alone. I really love how the kid on the right in the front row looks genuinely scared! A lot of people like to pose for the PhotoPass pictures when they know where the camera is. If this kid was posing, bravo!!! He looks scared silly!!

Once we added the ride photo, it was about 9:30-ish. I checked the Disney app on my phone only to discover that Expedition Everest STILL wasn’t open! AND it was still raining. Ugh! But I was determined to ride Everest again today. I just had to find something for us to do to pass more time. Kilimanjaro Safari wasn’t a good option because the animals aren’t out and active during the rain. The Festival of The Lion King show wasn’t showing for an hour, none of us was hungry yet. What the heck were we gonna do? There’s a covered seating area just outside the exit to Dinosaur, so I decided we’d wait there a few minutes. The boys took the opportunity to play some games. That big bag in the bottom right of the picture below is the triple bagged dinosaur.

After sitting for a few minutes, I figured we might as well head back toward Everest and wait somewhere close by so that we can be ready to get in line once the ride opened. Before we left the Dinoland area, a light bulb went on above my head (figuratively) and I thought of something I wanted to do to kill some time! What was this wonderful idea I suddenly had??

Come back later to find out! See Ya Real Soon!