This morning I tried something that I haven’t done before. I attempted an early morning free-for-all at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Usually, when I’m at Disney I sleep late, have a bite of breakfast, enjoy the resort and then go to the parks. Today, however, was a bit unusual. I woke up this morning at 4:00AM so that I could take my parents to the airport. On the way back, I stopped at Chick-Fil-A and grabbed a Chicken Biscuit and a Sweet Tea. Here’s some trivia for you: Chick-Fil-A opens at 6:00AM. I found out that this morning as I pulled into their parking lot at 5:55AM. I was their second guest of the day.
This morning, Animal Kingdom had a scheduled opening of 9:00AM. (There were no Extra Magic Hours scheduled for today) I got to the parking lot a few minutes after 7:00. I dawdled at Chick-Fil-A with my phone and then got stuck in traffic on Osceola Parkway. (A really bad car accident was the cause of the backup…I hope no one was seriously hurt, but the wreckage they left was scary to look at). I parked and made my way to the security area of the entrance to Animal Kingdom. They held everyone there until 7:30 when they began the baggage search. The crowd (yes, I wasn’t alone!) then proceeded to the turnstiles where they held us until about 8:05; they then instructed everyone to walk towards the Tree of Life. I, along with practically everyone else there, started walking towards Pandora. Stay to the left, if this is your desired destination and want to make Flight of Passage your first ride of the day; which is what 99.9% of the people were there to do! Once the crowd made it to the bridge to Pandora, we were held once again for about 10–12 minutes. Here, you’ll want to stay to your right. The people standing on the right side of the bridge had easier access to the “end” of the Flight of Passage line. Shouldn’t that be the “beginning”?!? The people on the left had an easier trek to the Navi River Journey. A team of cast members then walked the crowd into the Flight of Passage queue, after instructing everyone once again to not run. Amazingly, it was very well managed (due to the sheer number of people) and everyone seemed to follow the cast member’s instructions.
Basically, we as a group, walked onto Flight of Passage this morning. It’s such an amazing ride, and one that deserves this much trouble to experience! After exiting Flight of Passage, I made my way over to the Navi River Journey, were there was just a 5 minute wait!
After cruising down the waters of Pandora, I went and watched a bit of the performance of the Pandora walker. So cool!
By now, the time was 9:00AM–The scheduled time for he park to open! I made my way over to Asia so I could ride one of my favorite roller coasters–Expedition Everest. When I got to this attraction, there was barely anyone there…another walk-on! After this, I was exhausted from my early morning wake up call, so decided to get back to the room and take a nap, and get some work done. This plan to ride Flight of Passage without a Fastpass+ reservation worked so good, I would definitely try it again! The trick is, though, you have to be there super early, and hope that Disney opens the park a few minutes early!
TTFN
Cleared For Take-Off! 