Today we were transferring from Coronado Springs to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We got up early and had breakfast at the Pepper Market.   We drove to MGM and got a FastPass for Rock n' Roller Coaster for an 11:25am return.  We backtracked and went to the Great Movie Ride.  There was only a 15 minute wait, most of it indoors.  We got to sit in the front and got the gangster scene.  When we got out of GMR, we had enough time to get our second FastPass from Tower of Terror and go back to RnR for our return time.  Elana, who was now getting braver by the day, decided to give Rock n' Roller Coaster a go.  We got the front of the car and I sat with Elana, while Sara sat behind us. Unlike Big Thunder Mountain railroad, Elana couldn't grab onto me so easily, but I could hear her screaming the whole time.  When we got off, she wanted to go again.  Another convert.

We had some time to kill, so we got some drinks and sat near the exit to Rock n' Roller Coaster before heading over to Tower of Terror.  Only Sara and I went on, there was no way we were going to get Elana on this time.  Splash Mountain and Tower of Terror are the last two frontiers for Elana, although she did ride Tower of Terror twice before when she was too young to know better.  I had heard all about the changes and the random drop sequences, but I never read about one change.  Imagine my surprise when we entered the elevator to see that all the seats had seat belts! No more lap bars!  Nothing for which  to hold on! We sat in row six and my heart started pounding, but it was great.  The anticipation and the added effects really made a difference.

While we were on Tower of Terror, Judy and Elana went ahead to get FastPasses for Who Wants To Be  Millionaire and we met them after we got off.  The return time of 2:45pm was too close to our priority seating at Mama Melrose, but we were told we could get into the 4:50pm show if we got there 20 minutes early.  We went to One Man's Dream and spent about 30 minutes there.  I wanted to rest my feet, so I sat through the film three times until everyone else caught up.  We went to Mama Melrose for a late lunch and got there just in time, as it started to rain.  Elana and I shared a four cheese pizza and an Eggplant Parmesan.

After lunch, we went to MuppetVision 3-D/  I was disappointed to see that they changed the preshow, removing the scrolling countdown marquee.  From there, we went to Who Wants To be A Millionaire.  We didn't get picked to be in the hot seat.

At that point, we left the park and drove over to Animal Kingdom Lodge to check in.  We got room 3596 and while it was on the zebra trail as I had requested, it was at the end of the  hallway, not overlooking the Arush Savannah.  Everything I heard about AKL was true.  It was a long walk (1/4 mile round trip from the lobby to the room and back) and the lobby and the rooms are darker than other hotels, but it added to the ambiance instead of detracting.  Our bellman, Leonard took our stuff to our room and he gave us a great breakdown and introduction to the hotel.  When we got to our room, the view turned out not to be as bad as I anticpiated. AS a matter of fact, I think we lucked out, since the area we overlooked seemed to be a main passage way between the savannah and the pens and there were always animals outside our balcony. Judy decided to go back to the car and bring up some more things and brought Leonard back and he stayed for about half an hour regaling us with tails of Disney.  Afterward, the girls went swimming and Judy and I got some ice cream from Mara and sat by the pool and watched them.