The Dang's: Florida Trip: Day 5 - Thanksgiving at Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom

Thursday, November 24 - Thanksgiving Day
Day 5
6th in line for Aerosmith! Animal Kingdom! Ice cream sandwich Mickey! Hot tub! No turkey!

It may have been Thanksgiving Day, but with 80° temps it sure didn't feel like it! It's hard to get into the holiday spirit when you're surrounded by green plants, grass and trees.

To start the day, we went to Hollywood Studios to get on some rides that had really long lines the last time we were there. Carey and Caroline headed over to the Toy Story Midway Mania! ride while mom and I headed over to Sunset Boulevard for the Aerosmith Rock'n'Roller Coaster. It wasn't 9 yet (park opening) so the street was still closed off with a rope. We worked our way to the front of the rope with some stealth moves by yours truly - an empty bench to sit on? right by the rope? Ok...

Waiting for the rope to drop

It was mass chaos once the rope went down, people running and such, but mom and I were sixth and seventh in line for the coaster! It was as awesome as I remembered it. There's not much better than a fast upside down roller coaster with loud rock music blasting in your ears. I think it's my favorite ride at Disney. Mom even enjoyed it!

We were in the first car of the day!

When we got off, Carey and Caroline were still in line for the Toy Story ride. Caroline was getting Fast Passes for the girls (normally it's a 110+ min wait) and it was a really long line, so Carey was waiting for her at the front of the building. We raced over and joined them in line. We were so thankful they waited for us! It was still about a half hour wait, but much less than it would have been for us.

Waiting in line at Toy Story

The ride itself was rather disappointing and didn't live up to it's immense popularity. All it is is a series of carnival games on big screens that you shoot at. The ride just takes you from one screen, where you stop to shoot for a bit, and then go on to another. It was worth doing once, but I would certainly not wait long for it!

Next, we went on the Studio Backlot Tour which was pretty lame. It used to be much better. We headed back to the Rock'n'Roller Coaster to get the girls Fast Passes, but we were too early by 20 minutes (you're restricted to how many FP you can get in a certain time period). So, we decided to just grab a bite to eat before getting the FP and heading over to Animal Kingdom.

So long Hollywood Studios!

At Animal Kingdom, we briefly met up with Christine and Kelly at Dinoland U.S.A. for the DINOSAUR ride. We gave them their FP for Aerosmith and they gave us the ones they got for us for Expedition Everest. Then, they were off to eat lunch and head to Hollywood Studios.


My one photo with Stine for the day

Chester sighting!

This was our only time at Animal Kingdom on this trip, so we did a lot.

Finding Nemo The Musical - We got there right before it started so we had really bad seats way up high and on bleachers with no backs. This may have influenced my dislike for the show. The staging and costumes were neat, but otherwise I wasn't so much a fan.
Wildlife Express Train - Nothing too thrilling but let you see parts of the Animal Kingdom you wouldn't see otherwise and we had some time to kill
Pangari Forest Exploration Trail - A walk where you see different animals. Pretty cool and worth the time it took.

He must be soooo bored

Kilimanjaro Safaris - I didn't like the safari at all. Our guide seemed really reckless driving. At one point I was airborne and slammed back down on the seat. I felt sick after. And don't even get me started about these poor animals. How is it any kind of life for them to live where all these motor vehicles are constantly going by - they must be so stressed

Expedition Everest - We had 3 passes, but they weren't even necessary because there was a single riders line. Carey went in the single riders line and walked right on practically. She ended up riding with us! It was fun, but I did not enjoy the part where we went backwards! Ish.

We survived Everest!

TriceraTop Spin - Like Dumbo but with dinosaurs. Worth it if there's not much of a line.
Primeval Whirl - Just like Mulholland Drive at California Adventure. A pretty mild spinning roller coaster.
Maharajah Jungle Trek - Similar to the Pangari Forest Exploration Trail. Saw a lot of interesting things
It's Tough to Be A Bug - Cute 3D show with characters from It's A Bug's Life. I actually enjoyed it.
Festival of the Lion King - Circus like show. I wasn't a big fan but mom really liked it.

The Tree of Life

Yummy Mickey cookies and cream ice cream sandwich. My treat for the day!

We called it an early night and left around 6:15. We saw everything at Animal Kingdom that we had wanted to see and we had dinner reservations back at our hotel. When we returned, Mom, Carey and I went in the hot tub before dinner. It was so relaxing.

Dinner was at 8:30 at the Maya Grill. They served this really yummy bread with awesome chimichurri sauce. Delicious! For my main course I had MahiMahi with a Mexican red sauce topping and rice. It was pretty good. For dessert, Mary bought me some coffee gelato. Yum!!!