Disney 2021: Animal Kingdom

Our last full day at Disney was spent in the Animal Kingdom. We arrived at rope drop and were able to get into the park pretty early!

Our first stop of the day was at Flight of Passage. Having never ridden this ride without a fast pass, I hadn't yet experienced the full queue line and I was excited to do so!

Seeing the full queue all lit up was really neat and something I'm glad I had a chance to experience, for sure!

After Flight of Passage, we jumped over to the Na'vi River Journey. 

I realize this is incredibly silly, but if you actually pay attention to the surroundings on this ride, you'll notice that the Na'vi are actually going along on the journey "with" you! (Hence the name "Na'vi River Journey"....serious face palm here.) How I missed this before, I'll never know!!

Up next was a ride on Kilimanjaro Safari, while it was still morning and the animals were out and about! 

We saw plenty of giraffes and elephants! It was great as always!

Such a gorgeous day!

As a mid-morning snack, I stopped at a cart near Asia where they offered fried pot stickers. These are my FAVORITE on Disney Cruise Line and were taken off the pirate night menu - I'm still bitter about it. 

 

When I saw a friend on instagram ordered these for herself a few weeks before our trip, I added them to my must do list and they did not disappoint! 

While our friends took a ride on Everest, Brayden and I hung out and enjoyed the atmosphere. 

We did a quick rider swap and somehow ended up on the very FRONT of Everest! This was my second time to ride up front and if you haven't done so before, you need to! It's so much fun!

For lunch, we had the pulled pork mac and cheese from Flame Tree BBQ. This is a favorite of ours and almost always an every-timer! While eating, we also saw a boat pass by with Mickey and Minnie on board! So fun!

After lunch, we walked over towards Dino Land and secured our Annual Pass magnets. We love this cartoon and thought the magnet was so fun!

One of Brayden's favorites in Animal Kingdom is Triceratops spin, so we all hopped on board for a quick ride!

Notice the now-gone Primeval Whirl in the background. I never had a chance to ride it as I tend to shy away from spin-type rides. Rest in peace!

I love how we still had a chance to see characters throughout the park without actually being up close to them.

It's Tough To Be a Bug was up next!

When we excited, we saw a beautiful hidden Mickey made of flower petals on the ground! 

I love the creativity behind this one and saw that Disney recently featured a cast member on their instagram who makes these beautiful icons throughout Animal Kingdom! So fun!

Dinosaur is one of my favorite rides in Animal Kingdom and we decided to make it our last ride of the day! Somehow, we were fully finished with almost every attraction in Animal Kingdom by 2 p.m.! 

Poor Brayden was scared to death! Hah!

Before leaving, we decided to grab a few snacks on the way out. I really wanted a few snacks from Pandora, so we meandered back over in that direction. 

On the way there, we spotted a few friends! 

Jason's favorite is the Night Blossom (I don't care for it as much) and my favorite is the Pongo Lumpia! 

This decadent treat is made with cream cheese and pineapple, wrapped in a flaky crust. SO good!

We also ordered Starbucks on our way out!

Our evening plans included a tour of the Copper Creek cabins at Wilderness Lodge (for our friends to see) as well as a dip in the pool!

This kid should have been born a fish. He would swim all day every day if I let him!

Our beautiful day turned into a beautiful evening.

Brayden LOVED the water slide at the Wilderness Lodge and still talks about it to this very day!

After swimming for a few hours, we returned to our room to change for dinner at Geyser Point.

While waiting, we also had a chance to see the Electric Water Pageant! This brings back such awesome memories of my childhood!

We all ordered the same thing - the bison burger. It was delicious!!

After hanging around the restaurant and enjoying our final evening in Disney, we walked over to Roaring Fork for dessert! :)

Brayden enjoyed a Mickey Bar...

...Jason LOVED this magic cookie bar... (I did taste it and it was amazing!)

...and I had a Mickey ice cream bar as well! Our friends also ordered ice cream! Perfect end to a great trip!!

Back in our room, Brayden played with his bubble machine out on the patio and then we drifted off to sleep with another amazing day in the books! 

Up next: Our final day (1/2 day) at the Magic Kingdom! 

Topolino's Terrace Breakfast Review

Maybe I'm really longing for Disney World...or maybe I'm just hungry? Well, whatever the reason, I came across pictures from our dining experience at Topolino's Terrace at Disney's Riviera Resort and wanted to share them with you today!

For starters, we were not staying at the Riviera on this trip. However, getting to the Riviera was an easy ride away! We were also on the Dining Plan and wanted to utilize our credits as best as possible. For us, that usually does not include using a table service credit for breakfast, but we decided to chance it for a breakfast experience at Topolino's Terrace and we don't regret it one bit!

Prior to the trip, I'd attempted to score a reservation for breakfast at Topolino's and was unsuccessful. For good measure though, I continued trying throughout our trip and literally at 11 p.m. on the second to last night of our trip, a reservation slot opened for Topolino's for 8 a.m. the following day! What a way to begin our final day at Disney, huh?

We were so excited!

Topolino's Terrace is located at the very top of Disney's Riviera Resort and you are welcomed into their lobby immediately after stepping off of the elevators. From the start, this restaurant gave me a very Disney Cruise Line vibe, which I was 100% in for!

I loved all of the subtle Disney/Mickey touches, too!

The view from the top is incredible!

After a very short wait, we were directed to our table. Remember that Disney Cruise Line touch I mentioned? Well, my DCL friends will recognize the knife on the table! How fun, right?

The breakfast menu was prix fixe and included an art dish of pastries (yet another ode to DCL) as well as an entree of your choice.

The pastries even had dipping sauces across the bottom of the dish and everything was oh so delicious!

As the characters began coming around, Brayden became "shy". (His head on my shoulder was a recurring thing this entire trip! He thought he was so silly. At least he's smiling! Kids crack me up!)

Brayden's meal was the kids waffles which he ate up!

Bonus: Look how cute - they had a Mickey AND a Minnie waffle! So fun!

I ordered the sour cream waffle dish after asking the recommendation of our waitress. She was amazing, by the way and also a fellow DCL fan!

Although I'm not a huge fan of sour cream, these waffles were delicious!!

Jason ordered the  wood grilled steak and said it was very flavorful!

We all took turns taking photos with the characters (I did solo, too). For sake of time, I'm just posting a few here.

The outfits of all of the characters were so cute!

We loved this new (to us) dining experience and will definitely add it into our rotation for a future dining experience!

Have you had a chance to dine at Topolino's Terrace? If not, do you plan on dining there in the future?