We woke up bright and early for our first full day at Disney World. Animal Kingdom
had extra magic hours (a priceless perk of staying on Disney property)
in the morning and we were determined to take advantage of it. Grandma and Grandpa couldn't get their butts up early enough, so they agreed to meet us at the park a little later.
When we got there we headed straight for Kilimanjaro Safari. It is an open air bus ride that takes you through the plains of Africa. Usually there is a really long wait, but thanks to EMH we walked right on. It is incredible how many animals and how active they were. It is really similar to The Wilds in Zanesville, but there seemed to be more animals and everything looked much more authentic.
A happy girl with some pronghorns behind her ;)
Giraffes!! This is why I wanted to make sure Grandpa came here with us! There were probably two dozen of them wondering around, munching on the trees...some withing an arms reach of the jeep!
The elephant was taking a bath to start the day!
A mama warthog and her piglets. I wonder where Pumba is...
Shopping in the African marketplace while we waited on the grandparents ;) Disney does such an amazing job of recreating an environment and an experience. We truly felt like we were in a little African village and not a busy, tourist hot spot. Alyssa got a Minnie Mouse slap bracelet and Hannah got a rainbow color beaded Mickey head bracelet.
Once Grandma and Grandpa showed up we went on the safari ride again, before we found a place to eat breakfast. After breakfast we met Minnie Mouse, then watched the 'Festival of the Lion King' performance. It was awesome!
We headed over to DinoLand after the Lion King and rode a few rides. There really weren't very many they were tall enough for at this park. But, here is Daddy, Alyssa and Grandma on the Triceratops Spin.
It was getting really hot, so after a quick visit to the Boneyard,
which was just a glorified jungle germ, we went to do "It's Tough to Be a
Bug' under the Tree of Life. Being that it is based on a kids movie we
thought it would be age appropriate. Not so much...at least not if your
kids have any fears. The 'show' was a 4-D (not only did you wear 3D
glasses, but they sprayed you with water and had puffs of air and smells
come out at you) experience that was light heart-ed until the mean bug
came along. That is when it all went down hill. Black outs and spiders
coming down from the ceiling are enough to make grown ups shutter...I
couldn't even tell you how many kids left the theater in tears. Hannah
still talks about how scary 'the mean bug' was. Thanks for the
nightmares, Animal Kingdom! That effective ended our stay at this park. Really, since we have such a great zoo here in Columbus, there wasn't that much that really wowed us. We decided lunch at the hotel and a little rest would be best.
One of the best parts of the morning happened when we were leaving. Grandpa was goofing off on his electric scooter (like he always did), speeding and whipping around tight turns when he nearly lost control and tipped the entire thing. It was hilarious! After he knew it would get a laugh he started trying to tip it on purpose.
We had dinner Reservations at the Coral Reef restaurant that evening so we headed to EPCOT to check it our before dinner. Like everyone had said, there really wasn't a ton of stuff to do, but we did ride the Finding Nemo ride. Then, we did Turtle Talk with Crush. That was so fun...the girls loved it! In the attached gift shop Hannah picked out a stuffed Flounder to go with her Baby Ariel and Hannah got a necklace that said her name and had a little Mickey Head on it. We wanted to ride Soarin', but the line was too long so we did the land boat ride instead. We all thought it was interesting, but the girls were bored to death.
Hannah playing on Grandpa's scooter. Oh, the scooter. How annoying it was and yet it provided so many laughs and entertainment at the same time. Although, it didn't really get us any special privileges :(
We went into dinner just in time to miss a pop-up thunder storm. I was pretty excited about this dinner, but was greatly disappointed. The service was
terrible...maybe some of the worst I have ever had...and the food was
just ok. Definitely not worth what we would have paid if we weren't on
the DDP. It was so bad Grandpa complained and I emailed our travel
agent to let her know how bad it was. To make matters worse we were all
irritated and the girls were so bored by this point the were acting
up. The big fish tanks had no effect on them. This is a place we will
most definitely not go back to next time!
Hannah ordered the flounder for dinner. She may as well have. She didn't eat anything!
After our unsatisfying, over priced meal we decided to split up again. Grandma and Grandpa stayed at EPCOT to go to the World Showcase and we went to were the girls really wanted to be...the Magic Kingdom. In retrospect, that is where we should have spent our whole day!
The Magic Kingdom under the stars is pure magic. The weather had cooled off and we headed straight for Fantasy Land. Since it was time for all the night time festivities there were barely any lines! We rode the tea cups first since Alyssa has been talking about them for over a year. It was so fun to watch their faces and see the joy as we twirled around in our little pink teacup. I don't think I will ever forget our first spin on it with them. The sights, the sounds, the smells...that memory is locked away forever.
Before the ride...Alyssa looks terrified!
Daddy and Hannah
Here. We. Goooooooooooo!
Whoa!
This is so fun!
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