How To Do Animal Kingdom…

In 8 ½ Hours…

Traditionally speaking, Animal Kingdom is not among our favorite Disney parks. It seems that whenever we go there it is beastly hot (no pun intended), and we have often rented an overpriced double stroller, because someone is always sick! Today we broke the cycle…

To begin with, it was freezing! Some of us had coats and sweatshirts, and some of us didn’t, but as it turned out, Phil had enough extra warm clothes for just about everybody. Miah looked pretty silly all zipped up in Daddy’s sweatshirt, but at least we kept her warm and avoided buying the super expensive Mickey and Minnie Mouse snuggies that so many park guests ended up in today!

So… if you don’t really like Animal Kingdom, why go at all? Here’s the thing… although it’s not our favorite, there are a handful of attractions that we do love. We started the day out on Dinosaur, which Grace was never, ever going to ride again but ended up boarding with Phil and Caleb, because Caleb wanted her to ride so badly. When they got off, I was going to take just Ian, but Caleb wanted to ride again, and this seemed to convince Seth that it wasn’t really as bad as Grace had previously said. With all of her brothers getting on, Grace actually decided to take a second spin on it! I really couldn’t believe it. The picture was hilarious, though, because Seth and Grace both have their heads covered with their jackets, but Caleb and Ian are smiling up at the ferocious T-Rex!

The kids found their dinosaur eggs in the gift shop, and Ian convinced Phil that he absolutely needed to ride again, because he loved it so much!

From there Seth, Grace, Caleb, and I walked on to Primeval Whirl… twice… because we were on the wrong side of the ride for Phil to get pictures the first time. A quick trip on Triceratops Spin, and then we were on to Finding Nemo: The Musical, while Phil ran to grab fastpasses for Expedition Everest. Finding Nemo is probably the one thing that keeps me coming back to Animal Kingdom… makes me cry every time…

Expedition Everest was actually a much better coaster than I remember it being, and Caleb was super excited to ride for the first time, since he was a fraction of an inch too short in ’08. His one disappointment was that we couldn’t find the animatronic Yeti, but since Ian didn’t use his fastpass for this one (and that was definitely the right choice), Caleb was able to get right back on with Phil, and they found the Yeti!

We skipped Kali River Rapids, because it was simply way too cold to risk being hit by a waterfall…

Can I say here, we walked on to Kilimanjaro Safari, and it was the best… safari… ever. I was a little concerned that the animals wouldn’t be out in the cold, but they were more active than ever. We were actually stopped for awhile as the giraffes crossed the plain, and we got close enough to a Rhinoceros that I had to remind Caleb not to lean out to pet it! We also rode the Wildlife Express Train with just a brief stop at the elephant statues, where we got a little piece of Disney history from the cast member there. The elephants actually used to have running water for hand washing purposes in another area of the park. Who knew?

On to lunch at Pizzafari followed by a mad dash to Festival of the Lion King, where the show was delayed beyond Miah’s liking, but enjoyable once it started. A fast run through Camp Minnie-Mickey greeting trails netted us character greetings with Donald Duck, Goofy (dressed as Santa, which was a huge disappointment for Ian), and Minnie Mouse. We skipped Mickey, since we’d already seen him, but jumped in line for Louie (from Tailspin) and Thumper (Bambi). On our way out, we caught sight of Pocahontas and added another character greeting to our total.

Now it was time to run over to Hollywood Studios for the first time on this trip… another of our less favorite parks, but it’s hard to skip it with Fantasmic. It was our plan to see just that, tonight, and maybe to squeeze in a couple of other attractions. As it turned out, Miah was asleep when we reached the venue, and the Disney cast member absolutely would not make an exception for a stroller, even in the case of a sick, sleeping baby. I need to pause here to say that I find that a little irritating. I completely understand that they can’t have every stroller crammed into the shows, but I have observed an awful lot of people in wheel chairs and on motorized carts on this trip who seem at least as capable as my 1 year old. This is not, in any way, a slight against people who have actual handicaps and disabilities, but the fact that there were some people taking up handicapped spots just because they are fat and lazy while I have to wake my child up to see the show didn’t sit too well with me. I wonder how the cast members felt after the show when they had to clean up the massive chunks of vomit that Miah left for them… bet they would have preferred to have that in her stroller…

The show itself was amazing, as always. But since I was also covered in regurgitated macaroni and cheese (whole pieces of it), we decided to call it a night after that…

We checked in to Royale Parc Suites, where we spent part of our ’08 trip. I was disappointed to see that it had deteriorated in the last 3 years, but the truth is the room was big enough for us to spread out and get a good night’s sleep, and everyone got cleaned up, and that’s about all that matters at this point!

Lisa

Day 13 Photo Count: 274

Photo Highlights:

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

You don't get a view like this every day...

Meeting Donald Duck... or "Ducky"

Darth Ian...

And this is how I felt before she puked all over me... Yep... Our trip is winding down...