After our character breakfast at the Contemporary Resort, we zipped over to Animal Kingdom. Neither Jon nor I were certain how this trip would turn out. We weren't sure if the kids would like the park. We weren't sure if we would like the park. Turns out, it was a surprisingly wonderful day for everyone! We began the day by heading to Dino-land. I thought this looked like something the boys would enjoy and figured Sarah would have fun as well. But we took a short detour as we crossed over, right before Dino-land, there was a character area and we decided, there wasn't a wait yet to meet them, we would go and visit with Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. What a great treat to start our day! We got pictures taken with all three of them and then headed over to Dino-land. I wish I had done my homework a little better, because I had no idea about Animal Kingdom. We stumbled into Dino-land and let the kids ride the Triceratop Spin (Dino version of Dumbo and Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride). Then we headed in the opposite direction of the Dinosaur ride because I thought Sarah was too short. Turns out, she could have ridden it. We hadn't figured out our fast passes yet at this park either so that made things a little more difficult. Instead, we went into the Finding Nemo stage show. This was awesome! It was a live action show that was 40 minutes long. Justin didn't make it, but I stayed with Sarah and Jackson and we enjoyed the rest. It was a Mini-Broadway show! I couldn't believe how well the kids did during the show and I really couldn't believe how good the show was! After Finding Nemo, we worked our way to Asia. We decided to ride the Kali River Rapids. Jon went first with Sarah, then after they finished, I went on with Jackson. When Sarah got off, she showed me how wet she was. It didn't come close to how wet Jackson and I got! I was soaked for the remainder of the day! Good thing it wasn't a hot day! The Kali River Rapids was like the "family" ride at Blizzard Beach, except with seatbelts and a safety bar for Jackson. It took us through some rapids, without getting too terribly wet, until the last drop! Then we went down backwards to the raging rapids below and Jackson and I were drenched. He wasn't so sure about this ride, but he was a trooper! His catch phrases for the vacation were "I'm not sure about this", "Oh I forgot", and "Oh, now I remember!"
After braving the rapids, Sarah and I headed over to Expedition Everest with our fast passes in hand. This was a fairly goodsized roller coaster that went backwards in the dark. Mommy wasn't so sure about it. Sarah even said it was pretty scary and kept going m about how we had to go backwards because the track was broken! The abominable snowman had torn the track apart and sure enough, we had to go backwards in the dark to find our new track. I held Sarah tightly the whole time. She didn't giggle through this roller coaster, but to her credit, she didn't cry either. We got off and Mommy needed to sit down. It made me very whoozy. We were able to walk through the "ruins" and see some of the animals in the Maharajah Jungle Trek. It was somewhat like our zoo, but we did see some active tigers and some sleepy bats. We then headed to Africa! We went straight to the Kilamanjaro Safari! It was really amazing. The truck took us back through water and rough terrain to see some really cool animals. We saw a hippo, some crocodiles, lions, giraffes, many different types of birds, deer, antelope, gazelles, many more than I can name or remember. It was VERY cool! A trip I would take again for sure! Probably a different trip everytime as far as the animals go!
After our safari, we lined up for the parade and unfortunately, my camera had died mid-safari, so I knew I wouldn't have many pictures of the parade either. This was a great parade, because we were right at the eginning of the parade and the characters who weren't on floats came up to Sarah, Jackson, and Justin and gave them high-fives throughout the entire parade! The kids loved it!! Jackson really enjoyed all the parades! He sat through them all very contently.
After the parade, we headed to the train to see Rafiki's Planet Watch. This was a 5 minute train ride out to an area where they take care of the animals. There was also a petting area where the kids got to pet some goats and some sheep. They also got to see a donkey, a pig, and a llama. I will have my camera charged for our next visit to Animal Kingdom! We decided to take the train and start making our way to the exit. But I really wanted to see the Lion King show that had gotten rave reviews. I was so glad we stayed for it. Although Justin was extremely tired and difficult during the waiting time for the show, when the show started, he really watched and listened to moat of it. Like Finding Nemo, Lion King was an amazing live action show with acrobatics, fire, singing, huge floats, elaborate costumes...another mini-Broadway show! Worth the cost of admission for sure! And of course they ended the show with a sing-a-long to the Lion Sleeps Tonight. I was so glad we stayed. Now it was 6pm. We were hungry and tired and ready to head home. So we jumped on the tram and zipped back to our car and headed back to the hotel for dinner and a relaxing night at home. The kids were so tired after our Animal Kingdom adventure, they ate and fell asleep fairly quickly that night. Mommy and Daddy were pretty wiped out too!
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