Day Two was planned as a shorter, slower day, as recuperation from yesterday's busy birthday festivities. We slept in, had a faster bus ride (Animal Kingdom is located next door to Animal Kingdom Lodge, as you'd expect), planned for only 3 FastPasses (Kilimanjaro Safari, Nemo - The Musical, and Kali River Rapids - though I would have tried to add Expedition Everest afterward if I could have convinced anyone to go with me!) and one restaurant reservation (the Mickey and Friends character dinner at Tusker House). We scheduled plenty of time between activities to walk all the trails and view the many animals on site, take extra snack breaks (for cold treats and ice water!), plus some down time for the adults while the kids enjoyed the Boneyard playground over in DinoLand. It was a much more laid-back day and just as much fun as the Magic Kingdom. A lot of people tout Animal Kingdom as a half-day park, but it's really not. (Unless you don't take the time to walk all 3 of the trails and skip all the shows - they also have Lion King and Bug's Life. Our kids LOVE animals, so we made sure to plan a full day here.) After dinner, Jay and James ran off to ride Kali River Rapids a second time (shorter lines near closing time, thankfully, so it worked out) while the girls took their time moseying back to the front gate to wait for them. We were back to the resort early enough to swim for a couple hours and still get the kids to bed at their usual bedtime (back in Central Time, anyway!) Winner of a day, for sure!
(We tried to grab a few photos in their special Disney shirts before getting too sweaty. Or dirty, as there was digging later in the day. And no, Cora did not request that hairstyle. I was determined to do "Minnie Ears" pigtails at least once on our trip, and she threw quite the fit about having to get her hair done - because of the brushing, not the styling per-say. I guarantee you she "appreciated" it later in the day though - she was much cooler with her hair up off her neck!)
Lots of cool things to see on the Oasis, Discovery Island, Pangani, Habitat Habit, and Maharaja Jungle Trek trails - we recommend them all!
Out on the Kilimanjaro Safari - the lions were hiding from the sun and heat, but we saw everyone else (we think!)
Blowing kisses to the giraffes
Pretending to be a rhino...
There were two baby gorillas and they were incredibly cute!
James and I checked out a discovery table in Africa and he was horrified when he learned he was holding elephant poop!
This was the day that they started riding double on occasion because they were both "so tired" and their legs "just hurt!" Looks cute, but it was about 50:50 for happy sharing:angry squishing...
So hot... So many cold treats needed...
And when that wasn't enough, we bought misting fans. The kids were happy to oblige us adults with constant spraying... sometimes in the requested places, but mostly in the face or bum...
Another cool-off tactic was to go inside and watch the Nemo musical (which was wonderfully done, and wonderfully air conditioned!)
(Perhaps the best part for the kids was when the show ended with a giant rain of bubbles...)
After a quick lunch at Yak & Yeti, we walked into Kali River Rapids. Poor Gramma really could have used the soaking this ride provided, but she needed to protect her back, so instead she took pictures and hosed us down with even more water from the stationary guns positioned along the ending chute...
Next we grabbed the Wildlife Express and went over to Rafiki's Planet Watch to learn about conservation and visit Affection Station (a giant petting zoo).
Back in Africa, we hit up the drum zone for a while before crossing back to DinoLand
What's better than a flying elephant? A flying triceratops?
The Boneyard was an awesome (HUGE) enclosed playground (meaning, kids can't escape out the back, and the Disney staff at the gate don't let any unaccompanied kids leave out the front either), so we watched the kids run and slide for a bit, then retired with the rest of the exhausted parents to a corner while James and Cora continued to run (and climb) in circles. Well, after about 10 minutes I realized we hadn't seen them in a while and got up to go look for them. They were NOWHERE. So Jay got up to look too. And used his very LOUD voice to call for them. No luck. As panic set in, I rushed to the front gate to inquire if my children had been seen leaving with some other adult, only to learn that there was an entire other section to the Boneyard which can only be accessed by climbing the stairs to the slides, crossing a bridge, and descending on the other side of the DinoLand entrance. Oh. Well then. You can guess where our kids were. Filling buckets and covering themselves in dino dirt, of course!
(Biggest fossil digging pit WE'VE ever seen... And there are our kids, seated happily in the center, not a care in the world or a thought to tell their parents they were leaving the general play area...)
After collecting Gramma (who had been resting with her feet up, as the heat and miles were wearing on her, and rightly so), we joined Mickey and the gang at Tusker House for an African-themed buffet and lots of parading around the dining room with instruments and cookies.
After splitting the kids for 30 minutes or so to do their own thing (James to ride Kali River Rapids and Cora to relax in the stroller and pour ice water down her shirt...), we realized that we need to do it more often, even on vacation (so we did so later, at Hollywood Studios, multiple times). James was so happy to get to have daddy all to himself for a bit and do something special that Cora didn't get to do. And Cora was happy to be the center of Gramma's attention without competition...
The only thing better than swimming in a hotel pool is swimming in a hotel pool at night...
No comments:
Post a Comment