Wednesday February 15th 2023

The improving weather trend continued today. The temperature climbed into the low eighties under a clear sky and a light wind. The trend is forecast to continue until Friday.

This is my last full day at Fort Wilderness. It is a perfect day for catching up on some of the things I wasn’t able to do earlier in my stay. Most of those things were at Animal Kingdom, so that’s where I started my day. The park didn’t seem as busy as it was Monday. I also got there half and hour or more earlier. Wait times were not as long.

My first ride of the day was the Kilimanjaro Safari. This morning the wait was listed as twenty five minutes compared to the hour it listed at on Monday. I was onboard the ride truck in less than the advertised time. The animals were very active and I saw more than usual.

After the safari and a walk through the nearby Gorilla trail, I headed to Pandora to ride Avatar Flight of Passage. This is a ride I’ve never ridden. The wait times are usually in the seventy to eighty minute range if not higher. Today I was willing to wait it out. The posted wait time was sixty five minutes. I reached the pre show area in sixty minutes and was finished with the ride an hour and a half after I got in line. Flight of Passage is a motion simulator type ride that emulates a ride on a giant bird like creature called a Banshee. The trip through the wilds of Pandora is beautiful visually, but it is filled with dramatic drops, climbs and turns. Somehow I survived the ride without any real nausea. The worst part of the ride was the long wait filled with a little fear of the ride. I might ride again if the wait is shorter.

After a return to my RV home for a short nap, I made a brief visit to Magic Kingdom. My goal was twofold. First I wanted to watch the Flag retreat ceremony and second I wanted to get another Brownie Sunday for desert. Both missions were accomplished with a ride on the People Mover and watching a character cavalcade thrown in for good measure.

This evening I made one last trip to the beach on Bay Lake to watch the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. While the show is more complete from inside the park with all the projections, the solitude at the beach can’t be beat. The crowds in the Magic Kingdom for fireworks are food for nightmares.