I've been to WDW twice before this trip (once on a family trip when I was 10 and again on our senior class trip at 18). Animal Kingdom opened after my second trip, so it was the only 1 of the 4 I had never visited. I was excited to see the "new" park, and especially for Will to see all of the animals. He loves any type of animal, and I knew this would be a fun day for both of the kids.
We started the drizzly, chilly morning with a character breakfast at Tusker House an hour before the park opened. This breakfast had 4 of the "Big Five" characters - Mickey, Donald, Daisy & Goofy. It was a big hit with the kids!
Besides having great characters and good food, Tusker House is right next to one of the biggest attractions in the park - Kilimanjaro Safaris. We finished up a few minutes after the park opened and were able to get on the ride quickly. For the safari, you ride in an open air vehicle and see many African animals roaming around - elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, lions, etc.
Next up was the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. We especially enjoyed checking out all the gorillas - they even had a baby one.
Will imitating an angry gorilla
The Tree of Life sits at the hub of the park - it is huge and decorated with intricate animal carvings.
We made our way to Asia and the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The main attraction on the trek is the tigers, and we were treated to a show. The tigers are separated into two areas, divided by "temple ruins" with large windows to view them. One of the tigers were really interested/trying to stalk another one on the other side, and he has his face right against the window - so close, he was fogging it up. We loved getting such a close view of him but were certainly glad we had a barrier!
Since this trip was primarily for the kids, we didn't make plans to ride any of the roller coasters or anything else that they were too small to ride. However, I LOVE roller coasters, and it was killing me a little to keep passing them up. As we walked past Expedition Everest, Robert noticed the longing look of my face and suggested that I ride it while he, Mom & Dad took the kids to ride something in DinoLand. I jumped at the chance and quickly took off to the single rider line for Everest. I only had to wait a couple of minutes, and I was so glad to have the chance to ride it. So. Much. Fun. The photo of me with the teens cracked me up - glad that the ride photo was included in our PhotoPass!
I made it over to meet everyone else just as they were getting on Triceratop Spin.
We wanted to see the Lion King show, but we knew we were getting close to break time and wanted to make sure the kids had good naps before our big dinner that night, so we had to skip it. Next time! After getting a few souvenirs and a couple of photos in front of the AK Christmas tree, we went back to the hotel to rest up before meeting Cinderella.
1 comment:
Those tiger pics are amazing!
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