In case you hadn’t read any of my other posts on this blog, I LOVE going to Disney World. I’ve been almost every year since 1986 and in the last several years I’ve been able to visit more than once a year. I’ve been with my family, with my friends, and even unexpectedly got “stuck” a couple of extra nights at Walt Disney World and ended up by myself.

Although I know a lot of stuff about Disney World, I definitely don’t know everything and still have not seen and done everything that there is or that I want to do. When it comes to the rides I enjoy going on every trip or almost every trip, I tend to research things about the rides in an attempt to find out about semi-secret things or to find out where a Hidden Mickey might be. Sometimes I see a discussion in a social media group or discussion board and I learn something that I didn’t know before.

Last year, before a short trip I had in November, I read a post in a group where people were sharing things they’d never known about Walt Disney World. As I scrolled through the different things people were posting about (someone hadn’t known there was a barber shop in Magic Kingdom, another didn’t know there was a restaurant and ride in the Mexico pavilion), I ran across something that I didn’t believe.

Someone said they had never known there was a bird at the top of Expedition Everest where the ride momentarily stops. What? 👀 I read it again and then opened a new browser tab to Google this because I was in disbelief. I thought it must be something else they were talking about. Seriously, how had I been on this ride so many times over the years and never seen this? I have taken so many pictures and video at this point of the ride and there was NOT a bird there! Was there? I was kind of disappointed that I’d never heard about this or seen it before.

So, when my November trip rolled around and I went to Animal Kingdom, you know I made sure to ride Expedition Everest as soon as I could. I hadn’t brought the little camera phone mount that I normally use if I use my phone on a ride, so I didn’t take a picture or video (and risk dropping my phone during the ride). But there it was…in all of it’s fake-bird-on-a-stick-pretending-to-fly glory, right where I had read that it was.

Apparently it was meant to always be there and it just happened to not be working any of the times that I rode Expedition Everest in the past. Some people even told me that it had been completely gone for years. I was in awe. How had I never known about this? As I left the ride, some people behind me mentioned that they had never seen that bird before and wondered if it was new. I turned to tell them that I had just learned that it was supposed to be there all along and had been gone for several years and even though I was overly happy to have just had this bird experience, they just gave me a courtesy smile and seemed to be unimpressed that I was listening to their conversation. But hey…you’re walking three feet behind me and talking out loud in a crowd…of course I heard you. #sorrynotsorry

Now I’m hoping that it’s still in operation the next time I get to go to Disney World so that I can take my own picture and/or video, because apparently video and pictures are part of my Disney hoarding behavior. #stillnotsorry °O°