Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast
Welcome back for day 4 of our Walt Disney World vacation and our Animal Kingdom trip report. Today we will be going to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. But first, we have a super exciting character breakfast! We’re heading to the Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast at Trattoria al forno located on Disney’s Boardwalk. This location is perfect for us as it is a quick little boat ride, or walk, away from the Swan. The featured characters at this meal are Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel, and……..Flynn Ryder ( I prefer to refer to him as Eugene❤️). I am giddy with excitement to meet him!!
The waiting area here was a bit on the small side, there is some seating and I am sure you could wait out on the Boardwalk too. There is also a very small merchandise area with some toys, autograph books and dress up clothes. If you are scrambling to find these items before your character meal it’s convenient. But, this may not be so fun if your kids are begging you to buy random stuff while waiting for your character meal. Have fun with that 😉We waited about 15 min for our table.
A look inside of the dining area.
The dining room is lovely and the tables are spaced out well. Here are a couple of pics of our table setting and the pastry skillet that is included. All of it was super yummy!
The “theme” of this breakfast is a “Bon Voyage” celebration hosted by the adventurous couples to inspire us to share our own hopes and dreams and leave ready to find adventure. They give you a “Bon Voyage Adventure Journal” to record your Disney adventure. Others have said that they were also given a card to write their dreams on by Flynn Ryder but we did not get that.
I ordered the Royale Breakfast and the girls had the Golden Frittata and pancakes. It was amazing! This food is some of the best that I have had at a character meal. I would not hesitate to spend the money to eat here again. Often character meals are overpriced for the convenience of having the characters come to you and interacting but this meal alone was worth money (don’t tell Disney I said this)
Characters
Next up are the characters! Each one is announced in intervals then they start making their way around the dining room. Characters will arrive at your table, you have some time for autographs, pictures and interactions then the next one will usually come shortly after. All of them did an amazing job playing their part.
This is the dorky photo I ended up with🙄
Obviously, we would highly recommend this character meal and will likely be one that we will repeat. Till we meet again, Eugene❤️
Animal Kingdom Trip Report
Now we are off to explore the wonders of Animal Kingdom! We took a bus from the Boardwalk Inn to the park. This time our bus experience was not bad at all. We had some errands to take care of at the front gate. Mom needed coffee. Ellie needed to go to guest relations because she kept forgetting to bring her Magic Band. Emma was in need of a wheelchair for the day (after 3 days of walking her leg was not loving her). Once those things were done it was time to make our way to Pandora. This is our first time seeing this new part of the park. I am more of a die-hard classic Disney fan so I was not overly excited about this addition. Upon entering Pandora I really was in awe of how beautiful it was. The landscaping and detailing are so well done. It is really breathtaking and makes you feel like you are in another world. We did not get to experience the Na’vi River Journey. We didn’t have a Fastpass and were short on time but we did have Fastpasses for Avatar Flight of Passage. This was the most amazing ride!! It is exhilarating, a little frightening at times and so much fun. It’s Soarin’ on steroids! This ride should not be missed and a Fastpass is definitely the way to go. The wait for this ride can be up to 3 hours! I have heard that the standby queue is very cool and totally part of the experience. I might try to keep my eye out for a shortish wait time on my next trip to see it. To get the most enjoyment from your time in Pandora, watch the movie before your trip. We had not seen the movie for years (not sure my youngest ever has). It would have enhanced our appreciation for the experience.
Pandora
Photo pass picture taken by the front gate
Not everyone went on Flight of Passage. My mom was scared of Soarin, she would not have enjoyed this ride either. She took the little kids to go meet Mickey and Minnie. We met up with them and walked alllllll the way over to Expedition Everest for our next Fastpass. This was bad planning on my part. Coordinating Fastpasses for 11 people was a challenge. That is my excuse 🙂 We had this photo pass pictures taken on our way over.
Expedition Everest
So, here is my crazy confession! I have been to Animal Kingdom many times with my family but I have been too chicken to ride Expedition Everest! My excuse was that we usually had at least one kid that was not tall enough to ride so I elected to stay with that child. This time I had no such excuse so if I did not go on I would have to admit that I was a wimp. I would be okay with that but I decided it was time to give this ride a try. I loved it! I am not sure what gave me the impression that this would be worse than any other Disney roller coaster. I love the others but I was sure this one was not for me. It was scary enough to be fun but not scary to point of making me wish I had not ridden it. Disney perfection💗
DinoLand
From here we made our way over to DinoLand. We looking for more rides for the little kids so the little kids but they could only go on TriceraTop Spin. While they did that, we went on Primeval Whirl. This ride is fine. It is nothing great and kind of jerky. Go on it if you have time to kill but if not you aren’t missing anything. The little kids went over to climb around in The Boneyard for awhile. We were all in need of a break so we got some drinks and ice cream treats while we waited for the next Finding Nemo show. This is another amazing show that you need to see.
The “rookies” were ready for more downtime but first we all went to see It’s Tough to be a Bug. Here is a little side note about Animal Kingdom. It feels big and spread out and confusing to navigate. This is one reason I don’t really love it. I constantly feel lost and like we have to walk forever to get anywhere. The “line” to get into It’s Tough to be a Bug is no exception. It winds around forever. Thankfully you can take strollers almost all of the way in and wheelchairs can go right into the theater.
This is a cute, fun 3D attraction for most of us but kids can get freaked it by it. In addition to the 3D part, they also throw in tactile surprises that little kids do not always find very amusing. I would say this show could kill the chance that your child will want to go to another 3D show anytime soon!
Next up was Kali River Rapids. I was not loving the idea of getting wet but the girls insisted I that I ride with them. This is another ride that can be skipped at Animal Kingdom. It’s fine but nothing great. I did not get too wet which made me happy but just know that you can get soaked! Emma got egg rolls from Yak and Yeti while waiting for us and she said they were good. Her leg was bothering her a bit so we went to the First Aid and Baby Care Center for some ice (and to charge my phone😉). There is a Starbucks right next door too if you are into that.
Festival of The Lion King show is absolutely amazing and on our list of things to do. We were close by so it was our next stop. Here are a few pics from the show. We snagged a row right on the floor which is so fun!! The performers are only feet away. Do not miss this show!!
The final thing we needed to do in the park was Kilimanjaro Safari. On our way back we stopped for a little dance party by the Mombasa Marketplace.
Our trek on the safari was good. It was early evening so there may not have been as many animals out as other times of the day but we saw enough of them to enjoy it. This is a very rough and bumpy experience. I normally would not have thought much of it but all of the bouncing was a little rough for Emma with her sore leg. Soon, we were all ready to be done in the park for the day. On our way out we did make a few stops for some fun photos.
We were done in the park but did not want to call it a night so decided to head to Disney Springs. When we got there we made our way down to the “old” part. We are familiar with it and we wanted to go to the World of Disney Store. We did a little browsing and realized we were more exhausted than we thought! An evening snack was definitely needed. We made our way to Sprinkles to grab some amazing cupcakes. They did not disappoint and it was the perfect end to the day.
Tomorrow is our second day at Magic Kingdom and our the final day of our trip. Come back and join us for the epic end!
