Gone Wild

Saturday. May 21. Animal Kingdom. Green shirts/khaki shorts.

We went wild today. Of course, spending a day at Animal Kingdom is about as wild as it gets for us. We started the day at Donald's Breakfastosaurus, which was a little different than the last time we were there in 2003, but had the same great food and characters, i.e. Donald, Goofy, Mickey, and Pluto. After that yummy breakfastosaurus, we headed over to Dinosaur! I think we all forgot how intense that ride was! After that, we went to Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama where we road the Triceratops Spin and the kids had their picture made with a dinosaur that does not sign autographs. I mention this because I think it's funny that all the characters at Disney World either sign or stamp their autographs, except for the two dinosaurs in Dinoland at Chester & Hester's. I can't wrap my brain around that, but that's not a first.

While we were still in vicinity, we got to see Lucky the animatronic dinosaur that roams around Dinoland, U.S.A. We were very excited to see him, because he will only be in Animal Kingdom for a short time in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland. After seeing Lucky, the kids played for awhile in The Boneyard, a "dig site" playground.

Today was a lot of great fun and even though it was very hot and humid, we kept our cool by going to several shows and taking breaks in the shade. We saw both Festival of the Lion King and Tarzan Rocks for the first time. Tarzan was great but the Lion King was incredible! Of course, a trip to the Animal Kingdom wouldn't be the same without going to see the 3d show, It's Tough to Be a Bug at the base of the Tree of Life.

Around 3 pm, we found a great shady spot near where the Jammin' Jungle parade begins and rested until it began. We met a neat CM who stayed and talked with us awhile, after waking me up saying "it's the green shirt family." The Jammin' Jungle parade is still our favorite parade, even if we didn't get chosen to ride in it. An incredible CM had tried his best earlier to get us into the parade as marshalls when I mentioned something about that parade being our favorite. We tried not to have parade-marshall envy when we saw several families go back to ride in the parade. It was hard, but we cheered up when we realized how good our spots were for the parade. The characters really got up close and personal with the kids.

We also rode the train out to Rafiki's Planet Watch which was really educational in a variety of ways including a lesson on the differences in animal poop. I did not know that giraffe dung was so small. I'll never be able to look at giraffes again without thinking of this. While at Rafiki's, we met the man himself. I now must pause and give a disclaimer here for Katie. Those huge wet spots on Katie's shirts in all the photos of her are not sweat spots as they appear, but where Katie kept spraying herself over and over with the water sprayer. She and Jake both had one, although not at first. Those sprayers were both a blessing and a curse, but I don't want to go into that here. That's a whole different post.

Before we left Animal Kingdom, we checked the line at Kali River and it was too long for standby and it was out of fastpasses. Since we had a PS for dinner, we didn't need to stay til park closing. On the way out of the park, from Asia to Dinoland, we strolled right past where they are working on Expedition Everest. It is a new rollercoaster that will hopefully be finished next year. From the looks of the twists and turns, it's going to be one incredible ride. I hear they reverse the ride at some point. Bring it on! I love the coasters.

Tonight we ate a feast at the Polynesian restaurant 'Ohanas. The food was great and plentiful. The kids got to hula hoop and participate in a coconut race. We were sitting near a window looking towards Magic Kingdom. At 10:00 pm the Wishes fireworks show started and they dimmed the lights and piped in the Wishes music just like I read they would do! That was really magical.

It's late and I've got to go check our load of clothes. Tomorrow is Disney-MGM Studios. I hope it's not too crowded due to it being a Star Wars weekend.

Stay tuned...