Animal Kingdom Solo Morning Trip

Walt Disney World has several levels of annual passes. For the past several years we have been gold members which only has block outs during Christmas/New Years and spring break. We recently downgraded to silver which in addition to the above block outs also blocks out the summer. I decided to keep the gold for myself because the gold has the added benefit of included photopass photos. The silver pass seems to be a pretty popular choice (in my circle of friends at least!) Summers are hot and crowded at Disney, so if you have the option to go throughout the year you certainly wouldn't choose July! 

Now I have been to Walt Disney World over 80 times, but I have never been alone. Since I am the only one out of my family and friends with passes who is not blocked out right now I figured I would hit up the parks this summer by myself. I decided to go to Animal Kingdom for my first solo trip. I have been wanting to go back to Pandora to ride Flight of Passage and eat at Satu'li Canteen (the 2 things I did not get to do the first time we went).

After dropping my son off at summer camp I drove over which would leave me about 4 hours before having to get back to pick him up. I was lucky enough to snag a fast pass for Fight of Passage about a month ago and also picked up an Everest pass as well. I got to the park around 9am and hit up Everest. It felt a little strange walking around and just being there in general with nobody else, but it was kind nice to be able to just do what ever I wanted when I wanted. 

After Everest I walked through Maharajah Jungle Trek. Unfortunately not a lot of animals were out, but I did get to see the tiger eating his mid morning snack!

Then I decided to walk up closer to the Tree of Life and check it out. I'm always amazed at all the carvings in it.

Animal Kingdom is the first park that has introduced Mobile Ordering, they started with Satu'li Canteen and have recently added Pizzafari and Flame Tree Barbecue. This was the first time I was able to use this new service. It was really simple and super convenient.

In the My Disney Experience app, just click on your character icon and under My Plans choose order food. You can only place an order during operating hours of the restaurant. You can also order lunch at 10:30 and then not choose to pick it up until 12:30. Once you place the order, they do not prepare it until you click the "I'm Here, Prepare My Order" button. 

The app will also send you a notification when you get close to the restaurant asking if you are ready to place your order. The app will also alert you when your food is ready. The restaurant will have a separate line for Mobile Order pick up.

The credit card you have on file will be charged. At this time you can not use your Disney Dining plan credits.

Being a vegetarian I have been super excited to try this place out. There are actually several vegetarian items on the menu. I had a hard time choosing between Chili Spiced Crispy Tofu Bowl and the Vegetable Steamed Curry Pods. I have been intrigued by these pods for some time so I decided to try them out.

These pods are steamed and filled with eggplant, cauliflower, sweet potato, carrots, and shallot cilantro cream and flavored with curry. The two sides are root vegetable chips and crunchy vegetable slaw. The flavor of the pods were good, but I didn't love the texture of the pods. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but they were soft and doughy. Makes sense since they were steamed, but I guess I was hoping for something different. I did enjoy the curry flavored vegetables inside. I had heard that they were overpowering with curry flavor, but I didn't think they were. I did enjoy the chips and the vegetable slaw which also had some boba balls mixed in with them. 

After lunch I finally got to ride Flight of Passage. The stand by line was actually only 90 minutes, which compared to what it has been (100-200+ minutes) that really wasn't bad! I had a fast pass, so I didn't have to wait very long. I have avoided all spoilers a much as I could for this ride. I really wanted to experience it first hand through my own eyes. There are two briefing rooms before you actually enter the ride. I felt like these were pretty long instructional/prep videos, but I guess its better than standing around waiting and looking at the backs of the people in front of you! They go into this whole story line about how in order to ride a banshee your DNA has to be combined with Na'vi DNA, so each guest will be matched with an Avatar. Once you go through the two briefing/pre-show rooms you enter the ride area. The ride vehicles look similar to a bike. Once you are seated onto the bike you put on your 3D glasses and restraints move into position around your legs and back. I can see how this may cause anxiety in someone, because you are kinda trapped there. The wall in front of you becomes a screen and you are flying though Pandora on a banshee. They even simulated sensations into the ride vehicle were you can feel the banshee moving and breathing. I am usually very sensitive to 3D rides, but this one felt very smooth and did not make me feel sick. There are a lot of movements though, up and down, and upside down. The experience is amazing. People compare it to Soarin', but this takes Soarin' to a whole other level. You really are immersed into the land of Pandora and really feel like your are flying among the floating mountains and through the trees and water falls. I can't wait to bring my son here in August!