Animal Kingdom

Our second day in Orlando was spent in Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom didn't exist when I went to Disney World years ago, so it was a first for all of us. This day was a very low-key day. It was nice! The park closed by 7 PM and we had plenty of time to do and explore all that we wanted to. We enjoyed several shows that day - It's Tough to be a Bug, Festival of the Lion King, and Finding Nemo Musical. Not only were the shows good, but they were a nice break from the heat! Here's our day in a nutshell:

We first went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. We walked through the jungle and saw different creatures - our favorites were the massively huge fruit-eating bats and the tigers. I was glad we did this first before it got to toasty. Here's a picture of the girls in the jungle:

Audrey and I then checked out some more animals belonging to the ape family while Rachel and Andy went on the Kali River Rapids. Luckily Andy did a good job of shielding Rachel, so she didn't get too wet... Andy then went on Expedition Everest (which none of the rest of us could ride). He really enjoyed this roller coaster and went on it several more times throughout the day. While he was on the roller coaster the girls and I explored and found some characters to take pictures with:

We then met up at the Kilimanjaro Safari. The girls and Andy went on the safari while I had fun people watching! :) The girls enjoyed seeing all the different animals on their safari ride. I believe they went on quite a bumpy road in a truck like this:

Somewhere we fit in some lunch. We then discovered the Triceratop Spin in Dinoland - think, Dumbo ride, but you're riding triceratops. The girls loved this ride and we went on it several times throughout the day. I made the mistake of sending Rachel with Andy on the Dinosaur ride - think Indiana Jones, but with dinosaurs... It was a bit intense for her. Andy had a very scared, sad girl on that ride. Sorry, Rachel! :( The girls still talk about Rachel going on the Dinosaur ride and crying. So, yeah, I should have done my homework a bit better on that one...

The girls really enjoyed The Boneyard in Dinoland - basically a dinosaur-themed playground. Their favorite part was the tunnels and then the water:

They would have spent a lot more time playing around in there, but we were hoping to catch a parade, so away we went... On the way to the parade we took a picture in front of Discovery Island:

We then found a nice shady spot and enjoyed the parade:

Although we probably enjoyed more watching Audrey's excitement as she pointed, danced, clapped, and blew kisses...

After the Lion King show, which we thoroughly enjoyed, the girls enjoyed playing on some drums:

We managed to get a family picture with Thumper and his girlfriend:

The girls and I headed back over to Dinoland to ride Triceratop Spin (while Andy did another Expedition Everest run). On the way we ran into Pooh and his friends...

For some reason Eeyore was just too much for Audrey...
We also couldn't resist a picture with Pluto and Goofy in Dinoland:

As you can see, character pictures happened a lot more often in Animal Kingdom. If we did wait for pictures, the longest we waited was 5 minutes... We then decided to not eat dinner in the park and headed to Downtown Disney that evening for dinner and some shopping. We of course had to stop by a Disney store to pick up a few souvenirs for the girls. By this time they were asking for things, so we got it over with and didn't have to worry about shopping while in the parks the next 2 days. And we had to grab pictures of the girls outside the store with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (no line here, either!).

Once again, we enjoyed our day. Animal Kingdom was fun!