Monday, February 10, 2014

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom ticket booth

Even though we had a later than normal bedtime, we still got up bright and early (6:15) to get ready and get on the bus to the Animal Kingdom.  We wanted to be at the park before the gates opened to get in line and possibly see an opening show.  Animal Kingdom didn't have one on the day when we were there.


flamingos on the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride-see the truck in the background

The first thing we rode was the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride in the Africa section.  I had a Fast Pass+ for this ride, but we were able to walk right on it in the standby line (5min).  And since the weather was so warm, I was able to switch the FP+ to Kali River Rapids.

While on the safaris, it started to rain.  At first is was a mist, but a strong rain passed over us and we took shelter under an overhang.  S didn't mind, she had fun playing in the rain and splashing in puddles. Shortly after, the rain let up and we were on our way to Expedition Everest in Asia.

S & I are somewhere in that picture--I think

Again, I had a FP+ for this ride, and again, we rode via standby (20min--but not that long).  The Professor had no interest in riding and I wasn't sure S was up to it.  The only roller coaster that she had previously ridden was a little toddler coaster at Dollywood.  But she was up for it and she LOVED IT!!!  I was so proud of her.  She still tells us that it is her favorite ride.

a cute ride for the little ones

After Everest, we walked into the DinoLand USA area.  There we rode the TriceraTop Spin.  After riding that we just decided to walk around the park a bit.  We were able to meet Pooh and Tigger (hardly any wait, maybe 5-10m). Also around this time was our FP+ time for Expedition Everest.  S really wanted to ride it again, so she and The Professor rode it using the passes this time.  I think the wait time in standby was 40m (still not long for this ride)!


Pooh

Tigger

After a second turn on Everest, we were getting hungry.  We stopped at Flame Tree BBQ for lunch.  I had the pulled pork sandwich and a key lime mousse.  After barely eating the night before and a light breakfast in the room, I was HUNGRY!!!

the family with the Minnie & Mickey

After lunch we went to a character meet and saw Mickey and Minnie.  We had a FP+ for this too.  We used it, although we probably didn't have too.  I should have moved it back to Everest (if that is even possible).

The Professor didn't want to get wet. we were soaked.

We still had time before our Kali River Rapids FP+ time, so we walked around a little more and looked at more animals.  Then I changed our FP+ time to an earlier time so we could just walk right on the ride then.  I'll explain more about using FP+ in a later post. S & I walked right onto the Rapids with our FP+ and I realized that the 40m wait in standby was really more like 10.  So, when she asked to ride a second time, I was happy to oblige--especially since we didn't get very wet the first time.  But, we surely made up for it the second time.  We looked like wet rats when we got off the ride--every item of clothing we had on was soaked.  I had planned ahead & we changed out of our socks/sneaker into flip flops--although it didn't matter because S's shoes were soaked from jumping in puddles earlier in the day.  :-)

The family and Donald

We had planned on leaving for the hotel, but I saw that Donald was greeting and took a detour to see him.

After that meet, I found out Goofy & Pluto were just around the corner.  There was a line to see them and S (plus her daddy) were done for the day and just didn't want to wait.

We hopped on the bus and headed back to the hotel for a quick rest and a dip in the pool.  We considered going to Downtown Disney for dinner, but there was a band of showers headed our way and we didn't have umbrellas (and our raincoat were drying out). So, we ate at the hotel and then played in the hotel's arcade.  S won enough tokens to get some princess tattoos.

That worked out well, because the next day we went to the Magic Kingdom.

Join me for another post all about our day at the Magic Kingdom.

3 comments:

  1. Animal Kingdom! That's my dream. My other dream, of course, is Harry Potter world.

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    1. It was great. I could have spent all day there, but by 3pm the other two were spent. And honestly, it felt nice to get out of the wet clothes. There was so much more I'm sure we could have seen.

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  2. Great information! Thanks for sharing your tips!

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