Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom

Today was Animal Kingdom day! We had a late breakfast with Donald Duck, so we weren't in a huge hurry to get up and at 'em. But, it was WAY more crowded than I had expected. I guess the free dining plan brings out a LOT of people!

We got to the park around 10:30, and our breakfast was for 10:55, but I had heard that the Expedition Everest ride would run out of Fast Passes, so while I hustled the kids to Africa to get checked in for breakfast, David ran to the opposite side of the park to get Fast Passes for the ride. We met up again at Tusker House, while the kids had their picture made with Donald Duck in full safari gear!

The breakfast was a buffet and it was awesome! Another one of our favorite meals of the week. The buffet was huge and Riley comes to the table with a plate of three donuts! They had ham that was some of the best ham I've ever had! The juice was a delicious orange-guava, and they had biscuits and gravy, bacon and eggs, fritattas, pastries, potatoes, all kinds of yummy breakfasty things. And while we ate, Mickey, Daisy, and Goofy all came to our table and signed autographs, and Goofy passed out noisemakers and had the kids dancing around the room! It was cute, but my kids were being party poopers and wouldn't get up and dance with me and Goofy!

After breakfast, we decided to get Fast Passes for the safari, and we headed to Rafiki's Planet Watch. It's like a conservation area and petting zoo, but you have to take a short train ride there. Regan got her first souvenir of the trip there (I gave each of the kids $50 for the week to buy what they wanted) and Regan picked out a baby Simba wrapped in a giant leaf blanket, it's cute, but she wouldn't hear of us having him sent to our hotel, she carried him around ALL DAY. The petting zoo was lame, not too many animals out yet, so we headed back to go on our safari.

The safari is always cool, especially when it's not too hot to see any animals. We got to see a lot of really cool animals, a baby elephant, an Okapi, which looks like a cow wearing zebra pajamas, some monkeys, an ostrich, a cheetah, rhinos and hippos, and some really cute giraffes. It was a bumpy ride and at one point, Regan was convinced that she was almost tossed out of the truck! It was funny, but she held on tight after that.

Then we made our way over to Everest, only to find out the ride was being worked on, so it was closed down. We waited a bit, then thought we would head back and let the kids ride one of the water rides, but before we could get there we saw that Everest was running again. So we headed back to Everest and they said it was almost about to open, but you could only ride if you had a Fast Pass. Well, we had ours and we were about 5th in line, so we were on the first ride once they opened it, we only had to wait about 5 minutes. Then, as soon as we got off, we noticed the single rider line was empty so we got in that and rode again right away. Regan got sat next to a British guy who talked to her some, and she loves the British accent, and apparently he asked her "Is it scary up there?" so all day she kept saying to us "Is it SCAR-EY up THAR?" in her best British accent! This was one of the kids favorite rides and they wanted to ride it again and again, but by then the line was super long.

So we headed over to the Dinosaur ride. It was great, it was one of my favorites last time and I knew Regan would love it. It did scare her, and the pictures they take of you during the ride, hers were hilarious! David always tried to look like he was sleeping, but Regan's were so funny. She was really freaked out on the Dinosaur ride, but she loved it.

By then it was almost time to head to the Christmas Party, but we had one last thing to do, the "It's Tough to be a Bug" 3D movie inside the giant tree of life. This was another favorite of mine on our last trip, and sure enough, it did not disappoint! At the end, when it's over, they tell you to wait and not leave the theater until all the cockroaches and ants leave first, and then you feel this rumble under your seat, like the cockroaches are running right under your butt, I swear, I never saw Regan move so fast, she FLEW out of her seat and across the aisle! I was laughing so hard and she was freaking out! It was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Then we loaded up on the bus again and headed back to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!!