After our late night at Hollywood Studios, we needed to spend the next day being a little more low-key. Animal Kingdom closes earlier and we thought we might leave even a little earlier (none of us are big 'zoo type' people) and spend some time at our hotel, swimming later.
So we headed out the door early again and made it to Animal Kingdom just as they were opening again. (we were getting good at our timing!) This was the only park that required you to ride the shuttle from the parking lot.
Otherwise, every other day we just walked. We always parked close enough since we got there first thing where we didn't have far to walk to get to the gates.
We stopped first thing for this Photo Pass picture...
And as we walked in, there were tons of the cast members (they call them "cast members" there because they believe everyone that works there at all times needs to act as they are on show/on display) holding different aquariums and such showing all their bugs and things off to the kids.
We instantly noticed the humidity was kicked up a notch here. Didn't think it could get much more humid than we already were...but well, yea. It can. When they try to make it like a rainforest and all... yea, it felt like that before we got to animal kingdom. Really no need for them to kick it up a notch. ;)
Anyway, thanks to the different apps and map guides I used, we found out that Baloo (from Jungle Book) was hidden off in a corner of the park and would only be there till 9:45 (I'm telling you some of this stuff is secret! Had we not seen that on the Disney mobile site, we never would've known). So we went to find him first thing. Along the way, we stopped for another Photo Pass picture with the Tree of Life in the background...
And first we came across King Louie (from Jungle Book) so we nabbed a picture of him first.
He was so funny, he 'told' us he wanted to keep Brenna. Not sure her reaction...she kinda liked him and might've agreed. Haha!
Then, from there, right across the way (but hidden back in the woods), was Baloo.
Next we headed over to Africa to do the Safari, which I had heard was a fun thing and fills up later. Also, I've heard its better to go in the mornings b/c the animals get lazy in the afternoons. So, at the time we went, (by 10am), there was hardly a wait and we got right on. It was a really fun ride/tour. They bounce you around on these bus/jeep like vehicles showing you around, with all the animals out. Brenna got a little bit scared b/c the guy driving made it pretty realistic, saying, at one point, that we were chasing elephant poachers. So he started going real fast, got real bumpy, etc. Everyone thought it was fun, but she was a little nervous. ;) Her memory of it overall, though, was that it was fun.
Look at all the alligators lined up in a row!...
And the hippos too!...
One story from the safari that I thought was interesting... every day they call the animals in and keep them overnight in these huge buildings. They have a huge building for the elephants, another for the giraffes, the lions, etc etc... Animal Kingdom closes at 8pm everyday and this process takes 2-3 hrs. They have a special sound that the trainers do that gets alllll the animals in for the night and they all have to be in before dark. Every single night. I thought that was interesting.
From there we rode the train over to Rafiki's Island.
Not much there. A play area, a petting zoo (which are nothing new to us), but we did see Rafiki (the monkey from Lion King) inside the conservation building.
From there, we were going to go eat in Dinosaurland, but were sidetracked by Pooh and friends...
After seeing them, we did go into Dinosaurland and ate at Restaurantosauros.
It was a nice counter service restaraunt. Brad and I had the shrimp Po boy sandwiches and the girls had cheeseburgers, which were served with a sand pail. (you can dig for fossils in this area of the park, so I'm guessing thats the reasoning behind that) A good experience there, but again,...you have to get there early to have a seat! It starts filling up right at noon.
After that, we went and saw the Nemo show (best to do these shows in the heat of the day) and it, too, was AWESOME! The girls LOVED this show. Really really loved it. I wasn't sure how they'd like it...its the fish/animals as puppets and people (obviously) holding them up on sticks, moving their lips for them..that kinda thing. But it was really good. The actors (is that what they are called?) are really great and are good singers too. Really a good show!
The rest of the day....aw, who I am kidding? the rest of the TRIP!...Brenna kept singing, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming!" from the show/movie. Yea, that got nice and annoying. Thanks Nemo. ;) ANd if you don't know what I'm referring to or perhaps haven't seen the movie? Well, you can click here and listen to the short version. ;)
There was one other show we wanted to try and catch before the 3pm parade, so we could still go ahead with our plans to leave early this day. That was Lion King. We darted straight from Nemo to Lion King and got there with no problems, even stopping first to say 'hi' to Lilo and Stitch (no line at all!)...
They recommend you getting to these shows 30 minutes prior to start time because they have to filter everyone in before it starts. So if you aren't there 30 min prior, you may not get in for that next show. But we did. And Lion King show, was again...AWESOME! It was more a Cirque De Soleil feel, with gymnasts and acrobats, singing, even fire juggling! The characters from Lion King were thrown in there too and the girls were fascinated!
Next up, was the torturous 3pm parade. Seriously, Disney people. 3:00pm?!?! Why not 10am? Or 6pm? Why 3p??? Crazy. I'm sure there's a reason. But anyway, Brenna catnapped, while we staked out our spot in the shade and waited for it to begin.
This wasn't our favorite parade. It had some characters there we weren't even sure who they were?
After the parade we headed back to Camp Minnie and Mickey (where Lion King had been) and saw Mickey and friends all jungled out...
We apparently timed that perfectly, because it was while everyone else was in the next Lion King show. We had no wait really, yet you could tell when that show let out, then the lines came, but just as we were done. ;)
We saw Thumper too! But he got switched out right as our turn came up, so we got our picture with Ms Bunny. (roll eyes) Whatever. But, if you ask Brooke, she'd have rather seen the 'girl bunny' anyway.
There were a couple of smaller kids rides we skipped out on (similar to Dumbo and Magic Carpets) cuz the lines were long and we were ready to spend an evening at the hotel. ANd there were a couple of bigger kids rides (roller coasters and such) that we didn't do since Brooke wasn't tall enough anyway. We headed out towards the gate and took a few more pictures...
Then Brenna's foot got rolled over by the stroller (yea, that was not good...and scary). Thankfully she was ok later on and we made it back to the hotel ok. We wrapped up our evening with sandwiches from the fridge and went swimming downstairs and went around the lazy river a few, several, times. The kids loved it! And Brenna is becoming quite the little fish.
The picture below was the view from our room...
Next day we had planned for another time at Magic Kingdom - this time was an all-day'er. Staying for the fireworks and all, so we were glad to have some laid back fun at the hotel this evening, which included taking baths in the nice big jacuzzi tub. :)
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