Day 2 Part 2:
We both really liked Animal Kingdom, of course we are both environmental educators, so it didn't take much. The crowds were perfect, I had preplanned where we should begin so that we could miss some of the lines, but there really was no problem at all.
After a quick exploration of the wonderfully twisting trails of the Oasis and all the animals they hide ( I really got a kick out of those large white birds that are everywhere at WDW, we deemed them the pigeons of Florida), we headed to the back of the park to catch the Kilmanjaro Safaris.
What a wonderful ride, the Savannah was beautiful and there were lots of animals up and active. We saw the elephants (lots), hippos, lions, several antlered species, and a rhino who was almost close enough to touch. It was a beautiful sunny day and you could almost pretend you were in Africa.
After the Safaris we spent a little time exploring the Pangani Forest Trail. There are so many great animals there too. I particularly liked the Tapir, Gorillas and all the birds in the aviary. There was one very inconspicuous little black bird with this amazing bright green beak. He was so cute! I loved the themeing along the trial as well, very tropical and lush. After our walk through we spent a little time looking through the shops. So little money so much to buy
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Next we walked to Asia. On the way we stopped for a photo with Balou and to watch the amazing vine covered stilt person. I'm not sure what else to call them. This person was completely covered with leaves and moved very slowly on stilts, even their arms were on stilts. If you didn't see them move you might have thought they were landscaping.
Once we got to Asia we made a beeline for the Kali Rapids. The themeing on the path to this ride is truly wonderful, the statues and temples, and my absolute favorite part the rooster living in the porch of the last building before you head down to the ride. I almost wished there had been a line so that I could look around more. Almost. As it was we walked right on.
I had been a little worried about this ride as I am very susceptible to motion sickness but as I am sure you all know, it was so not a problem. The ride was so much fun and we got soaked! We immediately went on it again
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Then it was time for a snake of fries and off to the Jungle Trail to cool off. I really, really liked the themeing along the jungle trail, all the abandoned temples and hanging prayer flags and lanterns. I especially like the bat house, there were bats everywhere!
After the trail we did a little shopping to dry off before "Its Tough to be A Bug". I actually found this great plush Eeyore book (he's my favorite) to be my autograph book, so I was very happy.
" Tough to be a Bug" was really a great show, despite the fact that without my glasses I was unable to see 3-D very well. I still enjoyed the humor and effects and I loved the posters in the waiting area with the show titles changed to include bug references. As my friend commented, "Disney really knows how to make everything come together."
After the show we headed straight for the Rainforest Cafe and our 2:00 PS. 2:00! Ahhhh
! Where did the time go, this was our first moment of time pressure as we realized there was no way we were making it to MGM this afternoon.
We still managed to enjoy our lunch though, the restaurant was great, I loved that there was a thunderstorm every twenty minutes and monkey swinging from the ceiling. The food was not the best I had ever had but I think I had been spoiled by Jiko the night before. I have one piece of advice though, if you go and order the Volcano (a dessert which induces a loud chorus of "Volcanoooo" from the CMs) make sure you have some nice people to share it with. It is huge! My friend and couldn't even begin to finish it especially having just eaten a huge lunch.
On another note I would like to thank the CM who brought us an extra decoration for the top of our dessert since we were sharing, they are not supposed to do that, so she had to sneek us one:lookaroun . We really did turn into big kids while we were there!
After lunch we went on to see the "Festival of the Lion King". Very fun show! In the beginning I was a little wary, we walked into this empty pavilion with bleachers, but then the magic of Disney took over and there were all these wonderful performers. I loved that the kids got to get involved in the dancing too.
Our final stop in AK was Dinoland and Dinosaur, another really fun ride. One of the things I love most about Disney is that everything adds to the ride experience, the building the ride is in, the preshows and loading areas. There are always silly stories behind everything!
We had a wonderful day a AK and although we didn't stick to the schedule, we got to see everything we had wanted to and we didn't need a FP once. Our ride home was great too, we were thoroughly entertained by this little boy who kept demonstrating his strength to us by crushing M&M's with his fingers. He was so cute! I will post more soon, this was all my poor fingers could take!
) so we were really happy to discover that our room was ready. Ten minutes later, after a rather adventurous ride, our driver pretended to almost drive into the pool (thank god the brakes were working
