Day 19 - Animal Kingdom

Note: I'm sorry about the lack of pictures today. I'll take more tomorrow - I promise.

We've been following the recommendations of The Book for what park to visit each day. The writers have been watching traffic patterns at the park for more than a decade and have predictions of how crowded the park will be on a scale from 1 to 10. Epcot was rated as a 2.8 yesterday and was recommended as a park to visit. Animal Kingdom was listed as the park to avoid yesterday. Since AK wasn't on the list to avoid today, and the kids wanted to go to it, we decided to do that today. The Book also mentioned that there wasn't a full day's worth of things to do at the park, so most people were done and gone by 3pm. On crowded days, they recommended waiting until 3 to go, so we figured getting to the park late again was no big deal.

K had been begging to go to Golden Corral last night, but C was hysterical so I told her we'd go this morning. There is one right across the street from our hotel, but it was nowhere near as good as the one we went to in Pennsylvania (was it in PA? I forget now...) They still had the chocolate fountain, but no cotton candy for breakfast, and I think the kids were unimpressed enough that they won't be asking for that again.

After breakfast we headed to the nearby outlet stores. Mike needed some new shoes if he was going to make it walking around at all of the theme parks, so we went to get him some. It was only about 15 minutes away, but shopping for shoes isn't fast, so the girls amused themselves looking for lizards, of course.

By the time we got to the parking lot and took the tram to the front gate, it was after 2pm. Animal Kingdom is setup in a hub-and-spoke configuration like Disneyland, with a giant tree in the center. Throughout the park they have animal enclosures with smaller-type animals in them, but once again all the girls cared about were the lizards. Here in Florida, the lizards can be found about every 7 inches, no matter where you are, and lizards have become more entertaining than TV, than theme parks, and even than the swimming pool.

We headed to the right, planning to see all of the 'spokes' in a counter-clockwise direction and came to the Dinosaur section first. One entire section had nothing but restaurants, so we skipped that. Next, we came to a ride that felt very much like Indiana Jones but had a theme of going back in time to look for an iguanadon, narrowly escaping the meat eaters who wanted to make a meal out of us. I thought it was pretty fun, but poor little K was terrified.

The next area was set up like a state fair or carnival with carnival games and fair-type rides. A rode on the Primeval Whirl, a roller coaster with a spinning dinosaur car that she liked a lot. She wanted to ride again, but we decided to see the rest of the park before we repeated anything.

Our next area of the park was Asia, and the first thing we came to after we crossed the river was a ride called Expedition Everest. This park also didn't seem very much like Disneyland to me. There were more character-themed rides, but no actual characters and the place didn't quite have the high standards of cleanliness and crispness that Disneyland has. Where we did see the Disney touches was in the rides at this park. While most theme parks will just try to make their rides faster, taller, or more intense, Disney makes their rides entertaining, incorporating the scenery and decorations into a fluid storyline that continues all the way to the exit line. The Expedition Everest ride was exceptionally decorated with rooms and rooms of video, audio, books, and cultural items from southeast Asia. The theme of the ride was an expedition on Mt Everest in search of the Yeti.

The ride itself was superbly done, with the cars going backwards and forwards dodging the yeti and his destruction of the tracks. It was an outstanding thrill ride that thoroughly encompassed the storyline. We all agreed that it was very well done! I came off the ride a little dizzy as it is quite disorienting. When the ride goes backwards that quickly (in the dark) you can't tell if you are going left or right or up or down. It was a strange sensation. I would venture to say it may have been the coolest roller coaster I have ever ridden.

We grabbed a quick lunch and watched the one and only mini-parade they have in AK, and then we got Fastpasses for the Kali River Rapids (an innertube water-ride). Mike, C, and K walked through the Maharajah Jungle Trek looking at more animals while A and I sat in the shade for a bit. It is much hotter today than it was yesterday. They came out of the Trek in a hurry because they had been told that the last train to Rafiki's Planet Watch (where the petting zoo was) left in 10 minutes (that area closed at 5pm), and they wanted to be sure to make it out there. We rushed to the train and got on the last one just in time to make it out to Rafiki's area. While the train ride was nice and cool, the girls were not impressed with the petting zoo (we've been to some amazing ones - they're so spoiled! :P), so we only stayed out there for about 10 minutes and then caught the train back.

We continued on into the Africa area and headed for the Kiliminjaro Safari ride. It's actually like a really big jeep-type car that bumps and rolls through a long trail with wild animals all around you. It was a great ride and we all enjoyed it a lot. We saw rhinos, lions, giraffes, wildebeest, bongo, kudu, elephants, ostrich, and so much more! The watusi was so close to the car I thought he may bump his horn on the side. It was very well done and worth waiting in line for (we didn't, but I would have). It felt like a real African safari! (minus the big wide, open space of course ;)

 

By the time we got off the ride it was almost time to use our Fastpasses. We headed back to the Kali River Rapids, noting all the usual signs for a water park, except these said "You will get wet. You may get soaked!" We got on the ride right away and were happy to see that they had a little storage area in the center of the tire to stow your stuff. In the line we noticed that many people were coming off the ride very wet, so we were kind of glad that we saved this ride for the end of the day. The ride felt like any typical tire water ride, but they definitely have it setup so you get completely wet. I was drenched like I had taken a shower in my clothes. I was certainly the wettest on the boat, but no one escaped the water's wrath, with maybe only a spot or two of dryness.

By the time we got off this ride, the park was about to close (they closed at 7pm!), so we asked the girls if they wanted to ride one more thing before we left. The only things we didn't see in the park were some of the animals in the center of the park near the tree, the Bug's Life 3D movie and a couple of shows, like a trained bird show and a Nemo musical. A wanted to go back on the Primeval Whirl, so we headed that direction. On the way there we passed Expedition Everest and K said she wanted to ride that one again. A said she did too, so the two of them went with Mike on that ride instead while C looked for lizards with me.We tried to head to Primeval Whirl to see if we could do both (we had given A the choice and she chose Everest to ride), but we were too late. This park closes at 7pm on the dot!

We stopped at the IHOP in front of our hotel for dinner since that was Mike's pick, and then we decided to let the girls go swimming that evening and just take it easy. I definitely don't seem to have the energy level I had two weeks ago!