Animal Kingdom--Day 4

The fourth day of our vacation got off to kind of a rough start. Our plan was to head out early and be at Animal Kingdom as soon as the gates opened. We wanted to try to see some of the park before we had breakfast. We had made reservations at Donald's Restaurantosaurus inside Animal Kingdom, where we would dine with Donald, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto. However, our early departure was not to be. Brian had misplaced the keys to our rental car. We looked everywhere in our condo. Brian searched the pockets of the shorts he had worn the day before, the girls searched under the bed and in the sofa. I even went down to see if we had left them in the ignition. Brian finally thought he must have laid them in the trunk the night before when we were getting things out. Groan! Now what were we going to do? He thought the girls and I should take a taxi to the park so that we wouldn't miss our reservations, while he waited for someone from the rental car agency to come out. Well, obviously, we weren't too crazy about that option. I decided to look through the dirty clothes one more time, "just in case" Brian had missed the keys. And what do you know...there, in the pocket of the shorts he had worn the day before (and which were identical to the pair he had checked) were the missing keys! Yay!!! Finally we were off to the park, where we arrived in time to race over to pick up a FastPass for Kilimanjaro Safari and then head back for breakfast. On our way, though, we saw Stitch, so of course, we had to stand in line for a picture! Our breakfast reservations were at 10:30, so it was really more of a brunch. We loaded up on food at the buffet and then waited for the characters to come by our table. The whole thing was terribly overpriced, but the food was pretty good and, hey, the kids had a blast! So, I guess it was worth it. Anyway, after pretty much stuffing ourselves and meeting the Fab Foursome mentioned above, we headed back to Asia to get a FastPass for Kali River Rapids and then hot-footed it to Africa for the Safari.

The Safari was a fun ride. We saw quite a few animals, although some were from a distance. The setting seemed realistic and natural. However, the episode with the "poachers' toward the end of the ride was kind of cheesy. After we finished the safari, we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. It was a nice walk where we saw a number of animals including naked mole rats and gorillas (although the gorillas were being kind of shy on the day we were there). After we finished the forest walk, we returned to the Asia section and rode the Kali River Rapids. This is a tame ride, but everyone does get wet! Brian and Emily both got pretty drenched. After the ride, we walked took the Maharajah Jungle Trek and saw bats, tigers and lots of other animals. At the end of that we walked over to the Dinoland part of the park. On our way we passed the construction site of a future attraction, Expedition Everest, opening in 2006. It looks like it will be a very fun and exciting ride. At Dinoland, we rode the Primeval Whirl. It sounded tame, and it actually started off OK, but I wouldn't recommend it for people who get dizzy easily. It was also very jerky--I felt like I need to see a chiropractor when it was over. None of us really enjoyed it. Anyway, after we finished that ride, Brian and Emily got FastPasses for Dinosaur and then we went back for another ride on Kali River Rapids. This time I was the one who got soaked--I was wringing water out of my shorts! Then it was back to Dinoland for the Dinosaur ride. Anna and I chose to ride the Triceratop Spin since Dinosaur seemed a bit too intense for us. Emily and Brian loved it though. By this time it was getting fairly late in the afternoon and the park was to close at 6:00. We had to make some decisions about what we were going to do. We had several ideas for things we still wanted to see, but not much time, especially after we waited to see Tigger, Pooh and Eeyore. We finally decided on Festival of the Lion King and we were not disappointed with our decision. It was a great show with familiar characters from the movie, but there were also acrobats, dancers, singers. Disney really knows how to put on a show!

Some of the things we missed out on were the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" 3-D show, "Tarzan Rocks," "Pocahontas and Friends," and Rafiki's Planet watch with its education veterinary center and petting station. But, you just can't do everything.

After we finished at Animal Kingdom, we headed back to the condo and had supper. We also made a trip to Wal-Mart and then went back to the condo for an evening swim. It was a full and very fun day. Animal Kingdom is probably the prettiest of the parks, because it has so many plants, trees and flowers It is also one of the smallest, area-wise. I think we logged about 8 miles that day, but part of that was a result of our multiple trips across the park for FastPasses. If we hadn't been so tired, we might have used our Park Hopper option to go to another park for the evening. But, we felt like we need to take it easy...after all, there would be more to do the next day!

Trivia question: The Tree of Life is the centerpiece of Animal Kingdom. How tall is it and how many animals are carved into its trunk? As always, leave an answer in the comments section. I will post the correct answer soon.