Disney Day 5: Animal Kingdom

Super fun day! I had never been to Animal Kingdom before.  It opened after I had left Florida. This was all new to me, and it was wonderful!

The Tree of Life, in the center of the park.  It has all sorts of stuff on it. It is HUGE

A little breakfast while Aunt Karen gets a fast pass for Everest Expedition. The big roller coaster.

Since we had some time, we went to see about the Kali River Ride. On the way there, we passed a set of drums.  Lon and a bunch of other kids, big and little, had fun playing them.

After the Kali River ride, which was very cool, and we got wet, we went to lunch at Tuskers. I went to see what they had, and it turned out it was a Character lunch, and only a 5 minute wait time to get it. Of course we did it. While we were waiting to get in, we got our photo taken with Donald. We used the photo pass and got a wonderful picture, in a frame sent to our table! I think that this photo pass has got to be one of the best things around. A zillion pictures, and one set price!!
 Donald was not signing books, but the characters inside were. Daisy was at our table first.

Then came Mickey !
Lon was telling him some secret. I have no idea what he was telling Mickey.
When those two came through we were off to get our lunch. It was as buffet. Amazing food choices and it was all so good. Lon had a peanut butter sandwich. I had basmati rice with almonds and raisins, butter chicken, curried tofu, hummus, tabuli, mango chutney and a raisin chutney too. It was all sooo good. If I could have eaten more, I probably would have!

When we got back from filling our plates, Goofy was almost at our table. It was good to see Goofy.

Dessert buffet time. Chocolate lava cakes, baklava, strawberry mouse in chocolate cups, brownies, magic layer bars, lemon bars, fruit cobbler, a banana pecan bread pudding, carrot cake, cookies. Those were most of the choices I remember. We sampled alot of it and it was all mainly good.

After lunch, we used the Fast Pass Aunt Karen got for the Kiliminjaro Safari ride. WOW. It was about 20 minutes long and we saw a TON of animals.  Lon thought it was great

Especially when he got to see Hippo butt coming out of the water.

The aforementioned hippo, now fully out of the water

Trees full of Giraffes

Little elephants playing in the water while their mother stands close by.  They were having so much fun

We even saw a lion. No we were not this close, this is the magic of the zoom lens

We made it into the Lion King show. It was amazing and wonderful. The kids got to go up and learn a little dance.  Very fun

Timon!

The finale, the kids got to go out again and make a parade around the stage floor, shaking a little noise maker.  Not every kid got to do this.

Ice cream time

Sadly, it was time for Ing and Aunt Karen to leave. We were so glad they were with us, it was good to see them.  The kids had fun together.
Now Lon and I are back on our own again.

We passed a character spot. There were lines for Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Baloo and King Louie.  We had all the others signatures when we met them, but not Baloo and King Louie.  The line was short.

Being mushed in between.
At all these character spots, I am having my picture taken with Lon too.  I would like to know that I went on this vacation too!
I will get all those about two weeks after we leave Disney.  I am looking forward to seeing them.

These little lizards are everywhere.  Lon loves to look for them.

We stopped by this booth, it had a bunch of these face in the hole things. Turns out it was the Disney Vacation Club. I am going to go see them in the morning for an hour. I told the man there I could not sign up for anything.  He said that was fine, most people take home the info and then sign up once they realize how wonderful it is.  BUT I get a free breakfast, Lon gets to play with the other kids, I get a fast pass for Magic Kingdom, ice cream at the end, and they will drop me off at the front gate of the Magic Kingdom. I have to sit through the hour talk. For a fast pass to splash mountain, yep, I will do that!

We walked through a store after signing up for the Vacation club talk, when we came out the other side there was tape on the ground and all these people lined up. So we did too. We got pushed out of where we were by some very pushy people. Miss Nancy, a cast member, took Lon by the hand and moved him up front. I was behind him trying to take pictures of him enjoying the parade. The same lady seemed to block almost every picture. I was getting more than annoyed. Miss Nancy whispered to me that I could stand right beside her and it would be okay.  Miss Nancy was wonderful!

Briar Bear was there. Giving out high fives

Our buddy, Timon

I was getting Lon's cariature done, when we spotted Dug and Russell.  Mr. Jordan said he just had to finish up the colors and if we wanted to we could go on over to see them. When we got back, we could pick it up all finished
 When I was getting my picture with Lon, Dug and Russel, I  said to Dug, I know everyone must tell you this, but I just met you and I love you. He acted as if no one had ever said that before. It was all cute, he licked my hand and showed me his stuffed squirrel.  Silliness.
We picked up Lon's picture and had it sent back to the room. That is a nice service. You don't have to carry your stuff around. If you have more than one day left at the Resort, you can have the packages sent to your room. Sort of, to the main lobby type area. Then you can pick them up there. Beats carrying things around all day. Lon wanted a stuffed toy, so I got him one. The cashier saw that I had a bag I was carrying and asked me if I wanted to keep carrying it or have it sent too. I had our photo from lunch sent to our room too. Miss Norma was very nice to us. Then I was free from bags around my wrists!

Snack time. Lon looks like this because he does not want to share.  He did give me an ear. That was nice.

Lon wanted to go back to the roller coaster ride.
I said we could if the line was not too long
There was no waiting at all. We walked right up and got right on.

this ride

The only picture I could take before we started going backward, in the dark at what seems like 30 miles an hour.

He is trying to talk me into the water ride, the Kali, one more time.
I am saying I don't think so. It is getting late and I would be cold if I got wet. PLEASE MOM. PLEASE
Can you guess where we went?

You can get a small locker for 120 minutes for free. This is located right next to the ride. There is a reason for this. Lon got drenched. Soaking wet. I was not so bad, but I was still very very wet.

On our way out, after a quick purchase of shirt and shorts. (Lon is sockless  too)
We passed a Bhangra DJ Dance Party, Bollywood style. These lovely ladies are showing people how to dance from 4:15 to close at 7. Lon was having a great time learning some moves.

He is doing great
After Lon was done with his dance, we passed two other tables set up. One was have your name written in Hindi. The name Lon looks very pretty.  The next table was a lady from Thailand making birds or fish out of palm leaves. Lon chose a fish. We will bring it home. It is a great fish.

Yes, that is a live bird. Lon just wanted to see it better.

Ring tailed lemurs, collard lemurs and pink flamingos were all in this one spot. Lon wanted to stay and look at them. They were pretty cool looking

We had our picture taken in front of the Animal Kingdom sign, but I wanted one of just Lon here. Such a cute boy!

We talked about going to Epcot, we talked about going to the Magic Kingdom, we talked about doing laundry.
In the end we decided we were tired. We got dinner at the quick service place in our hotel.  We will do laundry maybe tomorrow. Or I will just pick out  the clothes that are not so bad....
We have another big busy day tomorrow!

Time to call it a night. Mickey Mouse sent him that stuffed Mickey in the welcome gift. He snuggles it every night.
Adorable