Animal Kingdom and Food & Wine Festival

The four of us were up early and on our way to Animal Kingdom by 7:30 this morning.  I had bought lightening lane passes for all of us, so we weren't too worried about getting on our favorite rides but still wanted to be there at rope drop to maximize our day.  The nice part about arriving before the park opened was that Cal and Maggie had plenty of time to get coffee and we made it to Na'vi River Ride well before the crowds arrived.  Cal didn't remember the ride very well as he had only been on it once and liked it a lot more than he thought that he would.  Maggie was happy with the short wait time as the last time she rode Na'vi it was over an hour to get on to the popular ride.

The rest of our time at Animal Kingdom was a lot of fun.  We rode Dinosaur next and then headed to Exhibition Everest.  Doug didn't want to ride the Yeti themed roller coaster, and Maggie said that once was enough for her, so Cal used Doug's lightening pass so that he and I could ride together.  I hadn't been in years and enjoyed it very much.  Our last ride of the morning was Kilimanjaro Safari.  We were very impressed with how many animals were out and about this morning.  Before we headed to Epcot, we also walked through Gorilla Falls and the Maharajah Trek.  We loved all of the animals on the trails, but our favorite were the tigers.  None of us had ever seen them as animated as they were today.  We ended our time at Animal Kingdom by watching the Lion King show which was very entertaining as usual.

Our next adventure took us to Epcot's Food & Wine Festival.  All of us were excited to try the foods and walk through the countries.  Cal and Maggie had read all of the reviews of the booths before coming this weekend and were prepared with what they wanted to try and where.  Doug and I enjoyed following the two of them through the park trying several of their recommended foods and listening to their thoughts on their favorite dishes.  It was a lot of fun and surprisingly not as crowded as I thought that it would be for a holiday weekend.  It made me wonder if having the majority of annual passholders restricted this weekend made the difference.  

Although the festival was our main focus throughout our time at Epcot, we did have time for some of our favorite staples in Epcot as well.  We rode Soarin', Figment and The Gran Fiesta Tour.  We also stopped at the beverage station to try several flavored sodas including Doug's famed drink, Beverly.  We even had a little bit of time to do some shopping before heading back to Ocala.  Overall, it was a fantastic day, and I was very pleased with how well the day went.