Today is Animal Kingdom followed by Disney-MGM Studios in the afternoon. This is new this year, and I find it worked well for our members who typically leave Sunday and miss out on a park if we do a full day for each one.

 

I was up early enough to grab some breakfast at the food court and then jumped on the bus to the AK. It wasn’t too bad a wait this morning, and NO stop at Blizzard Beach since that is closed - Oh, and since its FREEZING today!

 Still, I wore shorts and a t-shirt and light jacket and was quite comfortable. The wind WAS pretty cold though, and some people were bundled up big-time. Guess living in NY has SOME advantages!   ;-)

 

Taginators and others started showing up in line as I waited. I was soon joined by RaySharpton and Towncrier and had a nice chat with them while we waited. Then I later joined another group from tagrel.com that came in closer to park opening. We were all headed to Expedition Everest to grab some fast passes and then continue on to Deb Will's Safari ride in Africa by 9:30am.

The crowds were REALLY hitting Everest hard, and I think the FastPass line for EE was longer than the standby line for the Safari turned out to be! :-)

There was an AMAZING turnout for the Safari Meet! After a group picture we headed into the ride and Dottie was counting us off as we entered. I was 83 and I was in the middle of the group! Had to be well over 100 attendees! Still - the line was not too long and almost a walk-on. We were loaded in truck after truck and headed out on our safaris.

There were tons of active animals today and we saw many as we traveled through the attraction. Our guide was great and even slowed way down or even stopped for a second or two so we could get better pictures. Just a perfect time and all too soon we were back and unloading.

We had some time before the EE return Fast Pass time, so we split up again. I hit the Pangori Trail to try for a few more animal photos while others stopped for breakfast at Tusker House.
 

I eventually headed on to Expedition Everest to meet the group for our return time of about 10:30. Met even more people as they arrived and after a group photo we headed into the FastPass line.

We ended up filling an entire train with Taginators and were soon off on our adventure. I really do love this ride and we all had a great time! Only disappointment was that the Yeti didn’t appear today. Everyone quipped that it must be too cold - even for him!  :-)

After returning from our adventure it was decided that we would TRY to hit the Nemo show at 11. We headed over to the theatre and found a line that went on and on and ON! Along the way I saw a CM and asked if there was ANY chance of seeing the show. She said that typically, if you are not much past the Triceritops spin in Dinoland you should be able to be seated.

Well, that was exactly where the line finally ended! Wow! Even so, we made it in no problem and they actually brought in many others for quite some time after us. We were WAY in the back, but could see everything and most everyone really enjoyed the show. I think the girls are going to love this one, and it nice to know how far back in line you can still get seated.

 

After Nemo I headed for the Maharaja Trail.  I love seeing both the Bats and the Tigers. Always hoping for a great picture or two. I was a bit disappointed to find out that the Bats were not out as it was too cold for them. But the tigers were up and even moving around a bit this morning. And I saw quite a few other animals as well. Glad I stopped over here.
 

After that I did a bit of shopping and on the way out of the park I ran into PaulF, Darcie, Trixy and Tink*~*~*. They were headed to MGM as well, and offered to give me a ride over. Tink drives a Pathfinder (Really - THIS is the Pathfinder I was thinking of on Day 1!), and after (eventually! ;-) ) finding it, I decided to jump right in the hatch and ride back there! Plenty of room, and good fodder for ‘kidnapping Tagrel’ stories! :-D Forgot to take a picture though - That would have been good! ;-)

We arrived at MGM to be directed WAY to the back of the lot. But the Tram was soon there to take us into the park. We hit the Villains store for a candy fix, and then headed on down the road for the Stop, Drop and Roll meet. I found our group already gathering at the wall near the RnR FastPass machines, and another round of chatting and goodies sharing ensued. Its great meeting more and more people at each new meet, and there were several new members and/or people from other sites here for this one. I love getting to meet new people!

We made sure to grab all our FastPasses and then did a bit of Trivia for a few prizes. Then it was off to the Tower of Terror for the Drop portion of the meet. We had enough people to fill over two elevators! :-) It was a great turnout and and such a fun time. The ToT drops were the best ever. We bounced up and down quite a few times and had some serious air time today! Very cool!

After that we headed to RnR. It was not yet our return time, but GroupHugJohn (FLSharon’s husband) talked to the CM, who in turn talked to someone else to get permission for ALL those from MouseFest to use their FastPasses a bit early! Woooo Hoooo - way to go John! They even made sure we were together for the ride, and filled a couple cars at least! GREAT time!

Next it was off to dinner. I didn’t have plans but MargaretJ had an extra spot for me at her Prime Time reservation. They could NOT squeeze in a few more (booked solid) so a few people were turned away. Moley was going to wait for us, but poor Collette was feeling a bit bad and said that she was going to go back to the room for a rest. So Moley joined us for dinner too. Sorry you were feeling a bit sick Collette! We missed you here!

Dinner was good, and our ‘Mom’ wasn’t too strict. There was a second Taginators table sitting just in the other room, and THEY were naughty and causing trouble. I’m SURE I saw Rosebud standing against the wall!!! ;-) And they sent a few ‘mom’s’ our way to make sure we were behaving as well! It was fun and the food was very good.

After we finally finished dinner it was getting dark and time to head back to the Osborne Lights. This year they are DANCING lights and blink according to the music played. Pretty cool and a nice effect. I went around trying to get lots of pictures with my handy-dandy portable tripod, and checked out the show from all angles. Amazing number of lights!

After that I stopped at the Prop Shop to get my free AP print with Dumbo over the Osborne Lights using my coupon from the Mickey Monitor. Then I stopped at the Villains shop to grab a Captain Jack action figure I saw earlier. My original Gift Exchange gift of a Tinkerbelle tree topper was stopped cold when I discovered that a wing had been broken off in the trip down. Bummer! But Brinn wanted it anyway, and I’ll just repair it at home and let her have it! :-)