Day 8–Animal Kingdom

On our second full day at Disney we decided to go to Animal Kingdom because it was the closest to our hotel and we were hoping the girls would be able to nap that day.  For that reason we decided not to rent a stroller but looking back we probably should have because Noni and Aunt Karen ended up carrying the girls around for several hours.

We’d had recommendations from a friend that we had to see the Festival of the Lion King so we headed there first thing.  That part of the park wasn’t even open when we got there so we waited for about 10 min. and were some of the very first people in line for the show.  When we went inside it was just a big empty room with benches, and I was wondering how they were going to put on a show.  My goodness did they put on a show!  This was probably THE most impressive show we saw!  They had floats and dancers and singers and acrobats and guys on huge stilts and girls flying up in the air!  It was really impressive!  Bug was excited because we were on the first row behind the wheelchair accessible area so one of the main singers (in the bottom middle of the picture below) came over and gave her a high five.

These were the crazy monkeys.  They put on an impressive swinging routine!

These guys were on some kind of special stilts because they were dancing and jumping on them!

What a fun show!

After the show we walked out to the area where they were doing all the character meet and greets. 

After our experience the day before with the Beast I didn’t want to attempt anyone but Minnie.  She was a big hit!  The girls loved her!

We moved on to some of the animal exhibits next.

We got to watch this stork arranging her nest with the eggs in it!

The next thing we went for was the Safari.  We hadn’t discovered the FastPass yet (we thought it was something extra you had to buy) and waited in our longest line of the trip.  It was 50 minutes long and it definitely felt like it.  Animal Kingdom was WAY more crowded than Epcot had been the day before, but the Safari was really neat and worth the wait.  We got to see all sorts of animals.

The Black Rhino (although he is brown with mud) is apparently TOTALLY different than a white rhino.  I don’t remember why. :)

These guys were HUGE!  I was glad he didn’t stop the bus for these ones!

Bug was thrilled to see baby elephants!

After the safari we ate lunch in “Asia” and had some pretty good Chinese food.  We sat with some people (it was so crowded we had to share a table) that told us how to use the FastPass stuff. The girls were wearing out by then and since there were still some fun roller coasters (which I couldn’t do anyway) I took them back to the hotel to nap and Mom, Karen, and T stayed to ride the big-kid rides. :)

This is a little hut that they saw on a ride they went on.

And this was outside of the Dino Roller Coaster.

This picture cracked me up!  Mom is hiding, Karen and T just look amused and the huge, muscular guy in the front row appears to be terrified! LOL.

And here is an outside view of one of the roller coasters they went on.

After they tired of the rides they came back to the hotel.  We had to do an outfit change for Boo since she got lunch on her first outfit, and I discovered that with a clip for her bangs, I could put a little ponytail in her hair.

 

We went back over to Hollywood Studios to catch some of the shows that we’d missed the first night.  We got to see the Ariel show which was a mix of puppets and people and some fun special effects.

Then we were going to do the Toy Story show but the wait was 75 min, and the FastPass was all filled for the day.  Bug saw Woody and Buzz signing autographs and begged to go in and get one too.  I said, “Are you sure?  There is a 30 minute wait.” and she assured me that she wanted to so we got in line.  They had all sorts of photo ops from the movie so we took lots of pictures while we were waiting.

Daddy being silly. :)

“Trapped” in the crate in Sid’s room.

Strapped to a rocket!

I was very surprised when we finally got to the end of the line and both girls got scared!  Really??  We just stood in line for half an hour and now you don’t want anything to do with them??  Boo was clinging to Daddy for dear life.

We finally got them both facing the camera for a picture but you can tell Bug’s not real happy. 

I didn’t even notice until I was looking through these pictures, that we are standing on Andy’s “bed”. :)

What better place to eat dinner after seeing Woody and Buzz (more like running from Woody and Buzz) than Pizza Planet!  At this point we didn’t feel like making reservations and spending an hour and half at a sit down dinner so we asked and they allowed us to use our table service meals as quick service, not quite getting the most for our money but it worked out well. 

Noni and Boo after dinner.

All the shows were over again for the day except a last showing of the Muppets in 3D.  I am not a Muppets fan but T is so he talked us into going.  This was actually the first 3D movie I’d ever seen! It wasn’t very long, about 20 minutes I think, but it was fun how the stuff really does feel like it’s right there in front of you!  The girls both really liked it, although they didn’t want to sit still for a picture afterward. :)

After that it was back to the hotel to get a good nights’ sleep so we could be ready for our big day celebrating K’s 5th birthday at the Magic Kingdom!  Pictures from that tomorrow!