Day 4: Animal Kingdom

When I originally looked at all things Disney in preparation for this trip, I thought we would probably skip "Animal Kingdom".  I mean, there's a lot to see at the other parks and these kids have already seen the zoo, right?

But then they saw an old episode of America's Funniest Videos that featured Tom Bergeron enjoying the Animal Kingdom and they immediately started telling me all about what they wanted to do there. So, it made the list for Day 4.  We started off with the customary Radiator Springs photos, stopping to pose with "Sarge" and to be silly.  Once in the park, everyone was whiny, but that was quickly rectified with some frozen strawberry bars and a sighting of Ono from "The Lion Guard".

There aren't a lot of "rides" at Animal Kingdom, so we reserved spots for a 30 minute "safari" and to meet Mickey and Minnie and we booked lunch with the characters as well.  Having needed to sleep in a bit, we arrived at the park with our "Fast Pass" for the safari already live, so we motored through looking at things in the first area, veering off to the left and heading for "Africa".  Grandma and Boppy rented scooters and then scooted up to join us.

The park is designed to look like you are visiting a real African town they call "Harambe".  As soon as we crossed the bridge into it, Daniel saw a sign for a Lion King show and wanted to go.  But we were on the clock, so we walked through the rest of Harambe and to the Safari entrance where we were re-routed to a special "accessible" line that allowed us to take the scooters right up to the boarding area!  From there, we boarded a heavy duty truck and embarked for a half-hour ride through beautiful animal habitats, learning about the animals and Disney's conservation partnerships along the way.

After the safari, I made some adjustments to our timetables and we headed down to see if we could sneak into the Lion King show.  Again, we lucked out to be with the scooter-bound as we were whisked into the very front rows just before the doors closed.  It was a "spectacular" featuring amazing costumes, floats, trampoline and trapeze performers, singing, fire dancing, and more.  All in all a very enjoyable half hour.  And we spotted Kion from the Lion Guard on our way in!

And with that under our belt, we headed away from "Africa" in search of "Asia".  When I told the kids we were "headed to Asia", I did that Mommy thing you do of making everything a "teachable moment" and asked Max, "Do you know where Asia is?"  There was an employee (ahem, "Disney Cast Member") walking about six feet ahead of me who overheard and spun around, asking, "Do you need help finding your way?"  These people are SERIOUS about their customer service.

On our way to "Asia", we encountered a music station.  There was a sort of instrument kiosk set up and then a whole bunch of different drums that were just available for the drumming.  The kids were whining and dragging along and did not seem enthused when I suggested playing the drums.  But after a few thwacks on them, they seemed to warm up to it.

As we passed through the beginnings of "Asia", we saw that there was a line for a character meeting with Balou and King Louie from The Jungle Book.  The kids have actually watched The Jungle Book and while it wasn't terribly familiar to them, they remembered and wanted to jump in and meet them. We stood in line for a while, which engendered no little whining.  And then, when we were the next family in line, the characters had to leave to go take a break!  At this point, the children had been overcome by a severe case of the sillies, which was not missed by the Disney photographer who snapped some extra photos of us while we waited.

And then Louie and Balou were back and we were in business!

From here we collected the rest of our group (and the pretzels they'd gotten us) and headed off to our appointment with Mickey and Minnie. They were in their "Adventurer" outfits and Mickey was being quite silly, teasing with one of the handlers in the room.  When the kids came in, he goofed around with them as well.

Then I asked if Grandma wanted to jump in the picture too.  She declined, but Mickey would have none of it, dropping to one knee to entreat her and kissing her on the hand.  She rewarded him with a kiss on the nose.

And now it was time to find Wendy's favorite character, Dug from the Pixar movie Up.  We got directions from a "cast member" and headed just down the street and around the corner.  There was a short line, along which you could play with dog translation machine - you press a button and make barking noises and then it tells you what you just said.  Hilarious.

We still had some time to kill before it was time for our late lunch back in "Harambe", so we thought we'd head over to find some more Lion Guard characters and take a nature walk to look for tigers, but were quickly sidetracked by the fact that Pocahontas was nearby.  This would be the only princess we could add to our list for the day, so Caroline pounced on it and she, Wendy, and Uncle headed to the line, leaving me and the grandparents with the boys.  I found a playground (disguised as an archeological dig site) not far off in "DinoLand", so we went there.  At first, Daniel was not a fan of the slides in the playground, but once he and Max found the shorter ones they spent the next half hour climbing and sliding and climbing and sliding.   Grandma and Boppy hung out outside the playground (and Grandma took a nap). 

While we were sliding, Uncle was meeting Meeko, Pocahontas's raccoon friend.  Uncle was understandably excited (as you can tell by his blush).

And then Caroline got to meet Pocahontas, whose hair she thought was very beautiful.  They talked about animals and all their animal friends.

And then it was time for lunch!  We headed back to "Harambe" with much whining along the way.

We followed the pattern of amazing lunches at this "African-themed buffet".  The food was great and my favorite part was that the kids' food was on a lower counter, just perfect for them to serve themselves.  It was adorable.

And then the characters (Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy) came around in their explorer outfits and even danced with us.

Twice during our meal there was an announcement followed by music and the characters inviting the kids to get up and dance with them.  The second time, Uncle took it seriously.

And then we headed back across the park and back to Dino Land to ride on the new Dinosaur! ride.  Daniel put up a brave front, but his fear of dark places, roller coasters, and, we were to discover, dinosaurs, was a little much to overcome.  So he and I ducked out and waited in the gift shop for a while.  And when that didn't work, we went outside to ride the Dumbo-esque Triceratops ride.  Look at how the rest of the family looked compared to my reaction on the Triceratops and tell me who had the better time.

Max and Caroline came out to meet us and told us that Daniel made the right choice, the ride was dark and scary and they thought it was a little bit fun but mostly kept their eyes shut.  So we rode the Triceratops again.

And then we headed out because it was cold and dark and we were exhausted and the meltdowns had already started.