And as a bit of catch-up, here is the last part of the report I posted, when I went to Animal Kingdom for the first time ever.
Day Five: Adventures in the Animal Kingdom
Getting up on Wenesday, we knew we had to hustle and get out of the door, because for the first time since arriving at the parks, we would not be spending any time during the day with my aunts and our cousin David. They were going to Magic Kingdom for the day, it seemed, and wouldn't make it over to Animal Kingdom. This meant that to do the rides we really wanted to do, we'd have to take advantage of FastPass, and have to do it as early as we could.
For some reason we were under the impression that the park opened at 9am, when it actually opened at 8am, but we only arrived a few mins after rope drop, and were able to fly over to Asia to get the FastPasses for our must do in the park, Expedition Everest...except first we have to rent a wheelchair for my sister, who injured herself the day before, and walking was painful. So we do that, and to Disney's credit, it took less than 3 mins from walking up to the desk to walking away with her in a chair.
Asia was our next stop, and if we weren't in a rush, I would have been so happy to just stroll through the Oasis, but we booked it as fast as we could to Asia. Once there, we discovered that there was a 20 min. wait for Expedition Everest, so we swooped into line and for once, we wanted the wait to be longer. The Museum they set up in the queue was spectacular and so well done.
Setting the stage for a monstrous encounter
The ride was...one of the best "ride" experiences of my life (Yeti in B-Mode be damned.) I sat next to my mom, and seeing her face when the car started going backwards was worth the entire price of admission. As soon as we got off the ride, I grabbed a FastPass to come back later, as did my sister.
Then we walked right on to Kali River Rapids (because it was sort of chilly. We didn't really think it through. Having heard that the ride was sort of Roulette, where one person gets the most wet, I was prepared for it to be me. That would just be my luck. Oddly, it wasn't. I got wet, to be sure, but really...my sister got the full force of it, much to her chagrin and the rest of the family's delight.
We then went through the Maharajah Jungle Trek and enjoyed that quite a bit, especially the tigers, despite them deciding it was time for a nice long nap. The komodo dragons weren't out though, which was kind of sad.
On our way out of the path, a Disney employee was passing out FastPasses to the shows in the area, speficially Flights of Wonder, so we took some for it, and went to the take out counter next to Yak and Yeti to get lunch. I wasn't all that hungry, so I got fries. Big mistake. That food looked so good. We then went to watch Flights of Wonder, which was spectacular. I wasn't expecting anything from it, but it was a well put together show (even the Disney-fied twist of the tour guide showing up) and very educational and entertaining.
Afterwords, me and my sister headed back to Everest for our FastPasses, but we got in a bit of a fight, she got angry at me, and she gave me her pass and went to Africa to meet my parents (who were having a drink over by the Tusker House) so, despite an angry moment...I got to ride Everest not once, but three times in one day, a busy day where the line was over an hour and a half. It was awesome. Thanks for getting angry at me, Sis!
Then we got in line (a very long line, probably the longest we had to wait in the whole trip) for the Kilimanjaro Safari, but in the end the line was worth it (and towards the end we were allowed to skip some of the line due to my sisters wheelchair) because the Safari was just awesome. I can even forgive the totally unneeded storyline they added just because the animals were so close. I was snapping pictures left and right.
Baby Giraffes. The best picture I took all vacation.
This is the second best picture. The guys came right up to the car to say hi.
We then went on Pangani Trail, which was fantastic. My camera didn't really help me get good pictures, but seeing the gorillas was so breathtakingly amazing. This truly is the best "zoo" in the world.
Then we rushed right over to Festival of the Lion King, which took a lot of energy, because the next show was starting just as we arrived in the theater. That show is great, but I feel it would have been nice to see the very beginning. Next time.
Afterwords, we headed over to Dino-Land to ride Dinosaur, which I liked, but that made me the only one in my family. My mom hated the bumpy, my dad's back hated it too, and my sister was grumpy. I was thrilled to see the running dinosaur working, because I had been told he wasn't working all the time. God, that gave me a bit of a scare.
At this point, We called it a day, after getting a drink. We were going to see Finding Nemo: The Musical, but...the next show was over an hour away, and we were all wiped, so we left the parks, went and got dinner at a Golden Corral right next to our hotel (we don't have them in our area, but we get the ads all the time, so we figured why not)
Then we headed back to the hotel, hit up our swimming pool, then relaxed and watched a movie. It was a good night, topping off an awesome day at what is now my favorite Disney park.
The only picture I was able to snap of the Tree of Life. God, I love that thing
Next: It's the last day in the parks, and I do something no human should ever try: Three of the parks in one day. Will I survive? Find out next time.
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