Disney Recap: Animal Kingdom

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I had heard mixed reviews of Animal Kingdom, but I think we were all pleasantly surprised!  The park opened at 9am, we arrived around 8:30am and secured our spot in line.  Thankfully, there was no mad dash to get to anything like there had been at Hollywood Studios!  We were able to make our way back to the safari, which was the first thing I wanted to do when we got there.  And while it wasn't a mad dash, I wouldn't say it was a leisurely walk back there....I think every single person was headed in the same direction, so you kind of had to keep up with the flow of traffic or risk being trampled.

The safari was AWESOME!  It was pretty cool outside that morning, so there were tons of animals out.

My favorite part of the safari was when this guy decided to block our path for a few minutes!

Some other animal shots:

After the safari, we walked on the Pagnani Forest Exploration Trail to check out some more animals, fish, and birds.

comparing hands with a 6 year old gorilla

Next up, half of us had a fast pass + reservation for Expedition Everest; the other half (GG, Pappy, Jake and Liam) took a train ride to the Rafiki Planet Watch area to meet some more animals at the affection station.  Here is a poor quality picture of the rest of us on Expedition Everest:

We had some time to kill after riding that one since everyone else was still at the affection station, so we decided to check out the Dinosaur ride.  This was probably the only ride the whole trip that I didn't care for and wouldn't bother to do again.  It was jerky, not really scary, just loud, and we were glad we only waited 10 minutes for it!!

After that, we met up with the rest of the clan to get some lunch at the Tusker House!

By this time, Liam had this whole character thing down pat.  He was going in for hugs, trying to sneak up behind the characters for extra time with them....yep, a little character obsessed maniac.

"Cheers to sitting down in air conditioning!"

Shortly after lunch, Liam put himself down for a nap yet again in the stroller:

Nana was kind enough to sit outside in the shade with him and the rest of us headed into the Flights of Wonder show, which was pretty amazing, I'd definitely recommend going to see it!

After that, we headed to the Dino area of the park and let Jake burn off some energy in the Boneyard play area while we waited for Liam to wake up.

Liam was still snoozing away in his stroller, so some of us went on Primeval Whirl, which we all enjoyed.  Finally, Liam was awake, so it was time for one last ride before the parade.  Our little family headed to Triceratop Spin, which was essentially Dumbo with dinos, but they loved it nonetheless :)

Quick video:


Parade time!  The parade started at 3:45 and I think we made our way over around 3:30...probably should have headed over about 5-10 minutes prior to that, as the only spots left right on the curb were directly in the sun.

Once the parade passed, we made our way to the last stop of the day...the Lion King show!  I had heard great things about this one, so I really wanted to make sure we got there if possible.  It was really fun, everyone enjoyed it!

Next report, our very last day in the parks *sniff, sniff*  Until then, I leave you with these 2 adorable explorers!

Disney Recap: Chef Mickey's/EPCOT/day of rest

 Just joining us for the recap?  Check out all of the previous Disney World posts here!

After a long and tiring day at Hollywood Studios, we were looking forward to a more laid back approach to this day!  At 8:20am, we had breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey's, located in the Contemporary Hotel.  The plan after that was to head over to EPCOT for just a few hours to hit some of the main attractions, then relax poolside the rest of the afternoon.

Full dining reviews to follow, but I will give a teaser that Chef Mickey's was my 2nd favorite meal of the week.  Delicious food and speedy service...can't go wrong!

Gangsta.

After stuffing ourselves silly, it was time to take the monorail over to EPCOT!  We had 3 Fast Pass + reservations at EPCOT, and that was pretty much what we got through there before deciding to head back to the resort.  We LOVED Soarin', that was great!  And I have to say, what became one of my favorite things of the trip was Turtle Talk with Crush!  It was an awesome interactive show that had everyone cracking up....kids and grown ups!  We also did the Under the Sea with Nemo ride, which was cute.

Kids are friends, not food.

There was an aquarium in the Nemo section complete with a manatee!  They kids loved that manatee and we finally had to drag them away with the promise of the resort pool.

After a quick lunch at the resort, it was time to hit the pool!  These kids were more than ready!

Did you die seeing his little pool cover up? You just died a little from cuteness overload, didn't you?  The Art of Animation had 3 pools; the kids checked out the Little Mermaid pool on the first day, this is the Nemo pool, and we never made it to the Cars pool.  This one featured some waterfall jellyfish and a separate splash pad/water play area, it was all very cute.

"Oh thank God she's not dragging us around a park all day today"

I'd say that the day wore the kids out, they were totally zonked and dreaming of the next day at Animal Kingdom.....