Animal Kingdom

 

Well, today kinda started off a little rocky! I woke up at 6:47, which was much better than yesterday. Katie was still snoozing away. My instant thought was “I CAN’T BELIEVE I FELL ASLEEP DURING LOST”. So I woke Don up by asking him what happened in the last 15 minutes. He told me it was good and then started snoring again. So, I got on his MAC which was connected to the Ethernet and pulled up Ryan & Jen’s blog to see what happened. I never gave up on this show like some fair weather fans and it’s really picked up steam again as Season 3 comes to a close.

Anyway, we were all a little tired and slightly cranky getting ready but once we were out the door – the Animal Kingdom adventure had begun. We caught the first bus to the park which was good timing because the line exploded behind us. We got to Animal Kingdom and I guess because the entrance is much smaller – it seemed SO MUCH more crowded than Magic Kingdom.

We finally got through the gate and headed to Dinoland, where Katie was going to have her birthday character breakfast. We spotted Eyeore and Pooh on the way so of course we stopped to get pictures and autographs.

The breakfast at Restaurantasorus was AWESOME. Nancy(asaraus) was our waitress and she was great to Katie. It was a really nice buffet and I had the best scrambled eggs and fruit of my entire life! Nancy even mixed my OJ half and half with water for me to reduce the sugar. Katie was thrilled with meeting Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Pluto. The waitstaff sang happy birthday to Katie, which tickled her to death. Katie has been so cute wearing this birthday button – all Disney personnel will say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE” and she will answer by telling them Happy Birthday! We finally had her understand this afternoon that it isn’t like Merry Christmas – you don’t say it back. You simply say – thank you! 

From there – we went to ride Dinosaur. KATIE LOVED IT!!! Then we went to Primeval Whirl – which she loved so much – we did twice. It was like a spinning rollercoaster!!

From there, she met Roxy the Dinosaur and then we headed to Asia – Expedition Everest! Boy, has Katie ever fallen in love with roller coasters! We hit that ride three times – back to back. Katie wanted to just keep going and going!

We then did the Majarajah Jungle Trek… it was like ruins of an ancient palace inhabited by exotic animals, including giant fruit bats, birds, tapirs, Komodo dragons and tigers. Of course Katie’s favorite were the tigers.

Then we headed to Africa – had lunch at Tusker House where we had roasted or rotisserie chicken and green beans. Who would have ever pictured US eating like that at a theme park – but it was very yummy.

Then we all got Safari gear and took the Kilimanjaro Safari. Katie was in awe and let me tell you – this kid is destined for a future with animals – wildlife, equine, domesticated… not sure but it will definitely involve animals. The facts that the child didn’t already know from books and Animal Planet – she was soaking up like a sponge.

Then we did Pangani Forest Exploration Trail… again… it had wildlife and she loved every minute. There were exotic birds, fish, magnificent troops of gorillas, underwater hippo’s, etc.

We took the train to Rafiki’s Planet which was right up Katie’s alley – it was all animal habitat, how to create a habitat, etc.

On the way out of the park – we hit It’s a Bug’s Life – which was similar to Mickey’s Philharmagic – only with bugs and not quite as good. It’s a 3-D movie – I left off Mickey’s Philharmagic off my memory blog yesterday.

We got back to the hotel, had a light snack and hit the pool for our end of day release of tension and sore leg muscles. LOL!

Tomorrow, we are going to try and hit MGM and Epcot!

I’ll be bloggin about it tomorrow night!

LA 