Day 6 - Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom! This was also a park that I was looking so forward too. I wanted to get there early so we could be one of the first for the Safari that they ran (knowing that the hotter in the day it gets, the less likely you are to catch the animals out). We timed it just right and were able to get on fairly quickly. It was so great! You rode in a big jeep and they even made the roads feel like you were out on the back roads. The scenery was beautiful and I can just imagine how beautiful Africa really is. Check out the Savanna:

So beautiful to me...

Most of the animals were out and we got to see some really up close! There was even a giraffe that seemed to be following our jeep :-)

Animal Kingdom is split up into several different areas, but we explored Africa first. Not ever having been to Africa, I have nothing to compare it to, but I loved how authentic they seemed to make the buildings and all of the surroundings. I couldn't get my friend Meredith off of my mind, knowing she would be going to Africa soon to be joined with her little baby :-) At the center piece of Animal Kingdom was the tree of life, which had numerous carvings of all kinds of different animals in it. This was truly a sight and I cannot imagine how long it took to do all of that art. My picture does it no justice:

The Tree of Life from the outside

One of the carvings inside the tree

We took a train ride over to Rafiki's conservation island and we really enjoyed this because we could see some of the insects and amphibians a little closer. We even got to watch a bit behind the scenes where the vets were giving a physical to a set of small monkeys! They had a little petting zoo where you could brush domesticated animals, but they only had one kind of animal out at a time.

They also had conservation stations set up in each section of the park where the girls could learn different things and then stamp their books. We wanted to make sure to get all of their stamps!

Kyleigh being a good listener at the conservation station

After coming back over from the island, we decided to eat in Africa at a place called Tusker House. They had a mix of American and African food on their buffet. This was a little costly, but worth it to get to try some different kinds of food and also to look around at all of the character it had.

That's Kyleigh not wanting to pose

After this, we headed to Asia. I was excited to see if this had as much character as Africa did, especially after all of the reading I have been doing about Korea. It was so neat to see all of the buildings and the paintings on them, especially the tigers as they are revered in Asian culture. Bobby and I also took on the Everest roller coaster, which was a huge surprise, while his mom took the girls to Dinoland to play at the park there.

Playing at Dinoland

Tiger painting on the wall in Asia....and a random woman adjusting her pants

Running through the streets of Asia

Real fat and happy tigers

We met up and rode a few more rides at Dinoland and decided to hit "Nemo the Musical". We got there late, but ended up with really good seats! If you go to Animal Kingdom, don't miss this show!!

When we got back outside, we noticed it had gotten at bit darker (there was a 70% chance of rain) and we figured our time was going to be cut short soon. We scrambled to get the last few stamps for the girl's conservation books, and decided on the way to get the last one we would go see the show "It's tough to be a bug" in the tree of life.

Well. This was another one of those interactive, very realistic shows in 3D that started out cute, but ended up with my girls on the floor scared and several other kids crying. The beginning is really cute with Flick being the host, but then he starts talking about how we are outnumbered by insects and I guess they were trying to get even with us? So all of a sudden it was like different insects were coming at you....it felt like they were flying around your shirts (highly pressurized air) and looked like they were coming at you if you were wearing the glasses. The worst part was the buzzing and then something poked through your seat, like you were being stung in the back. At the end of it, you had to wait until the bugs left to get to leave (I'm not giving that surprise away). Again, while this might be cute and fun for adults and older kids, beware for your younger ones and maybe hold them in your lap and don't let them sit in the seats if you think this might scare them.

Once we got outside, the bottom let out! We barely got to our last conservation station when it was raining so hard the ponchos were not doing much good. We put them on anyway and tried to find our way out, but I have to say it was fun and really made the adventure more authentic. Everyone out there was pretty much soaked, just like if we had been in a rain forest anyway!

We ended up getting back to the condo earlier than what we thought, so Bobby and I decided to take advantage and get out just by ourselves and go have dinner and a movie at Downtown Disney. We figured it had been almost FOUR years since we had seen a movie together! I really enjoyed our dinner and date night and it was so much fun just to get out together.

Savings

Yup, no savings today :-(

What was your favorite?

Brandi: "the safari, all of the character in the buildings, the Everest roller coaster, "Nemo the musical" getting a date alone with Bobby"

Bobby: "the safari and the Everest roller coaster"

Kyleigh: "visiting the conservation stations and getting all of my stamps"

Reece: "the gorillas"

Dislikes?

Same warning for "It's tough to be a bug show" as in previous posts about these interactive shows and little ones. Bobby and his mom said the Primeval Whirl in Dinoland is really jerky, so keep that in mind. Of course, Kyleigh loved it.