Disney: Day 5

Animal Kingdom
Park Hours: 9:00 am-6:00 pm

Outfits:

Black, Pink and Animal Print

We had Fast Passes for the Safari at 9 and Lion King at 10:00 but we didn't get to the park until about 9:30 because we had a hard time getting going.  We literally ran through the park to get there.  The kids thought it was fun to feel like we were on a safari and after running like crazy people through the park, it was nice to sit for a while.  :)

We had to reschedule our Fast Pass for the Lion King show because we had to get to our breakfast reservations at Tusker House.

We sat down to eat around 10:30 and this was another buffet style restaurant with characters; Safari Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Daisy.  This was another super fun experience.  About half way through our meal, our waiter told us that they were going to start switching out breakfast for lunch but that we were welcome to help ourselves to anything we wanted and could stay as long as we wanted.  We made sure to get our fill since this was our big sit down meal for the day.

Lily had fun dancing/partying and Luke thought all the Mickey shaped food was fun!

We headed to the Kali River Rapids after brunch and as we waited in line we started to get really worried.  We looked around and everyone had rain ponchos!  I knew it was a rapids ride but I was not expecting to get soaked.  We got moderately wet but the people across the float from us got most of it.  It just depends on how your float turns during the ride.  We lucked out and while we got wet, we weren't dripping wet.  This was one of the kids favorite rides.

The Maharajah Jungle Trek was just outside the rapids and the kids really enjoyed this walking tour.  We saw bats, tigers, birds, etc and they had little guide pages to tell you all about what you were seeing.  That might have been the kids favorite part - it was like a scavenger hunt for animals with a map.  Luke could not have been more excited!

Map/Animal descriptions

Bats

Tiger

My favorite from our family pictures in the Jungle Trek

I love that the photographers do fun little things like this to your pictures!

Expedition Everest was next on our list and this one made me really nervous.  At one point during the ride, the track switches and you go backwards.  Luke thought that sounded fun but Lily was not really interested.  Brett convinced her to try it once and told her he would sit with her and hold her hand.

She didn't love it.  haha

They were so proud of themselves for doing it!

We left Everest and headed to DinoLand.  Luke wanted to ride the Primeval Whirl but you had to be 48" so Lily was too short.  This was the only ride that Lily had not been able to ride so far.

Sad face

While the boys rode, she and I did the TriceraTop Spin.

While in DinoLand, we thought the DINOSAUR ride would be fun!  Y'all I was SO wrong!  It was slightly terrifying and again Lily did not enjoy it one bit.  It shakes you around and dinosaurs jump out at you from different angles.  I hated it too!

Totally naive as to what was about to happen.

After practically peeing our pants, we wanted to do something a little more low key so we took the kids to The Boneyard.  This is a fun playground that is full of dinosaur bones.  At this point, we are exhausted and decided to just let the kids run around for 30 mins while we seriously consider laying down to take a nap.

Playing made the littles hungry so we stopped for a Mickey snack.

Good thing I brought wipes!

As we walked around, we ran into a couple of characters so the kids wanted to stop and get some signatures for their books.

Tarzan

We stopped at the Tree of Life for a photo op.

Then we headed back for Everest round 2.  Lily rode it again but after that she was done.  Brett and Luke rode it another 4 times while we watched and waited to see them come down the big hill.

Giant yeti footprint

Brett got Luke to raise his hands, they loved this ride

This was how we felt about Expedition Everest.  :)

Luke wanted to take our picture  :)

Then it was their turn  :)

Our final stop for the day was Festival of the Lion King but we had to book it across the park to get there.  On our way we found Baloo and King Louie from the Jungle Book.

We were now almost late for Festival of the Lion King so we ran as fast as we could to get there in time to use our Fast Pass.  This show was amazing.  It was a smaller version of the broadway play.  There were acrobats and beautiful musical numbers.  We loved it, although Lily only made it halfway through before she passed out!  :)  It was a great way to end our day at the park.

The show didn't end until 6:30 and at that point the park was closed so we headed back to the resort.  I was hoping we could make it an early night but Brett mentioned looking for the hot tub and pool so of course the kids wanted to swim.  We ate a quick meal in the dining room and went to the pool.  Brett relaxed in the hot tub while I watched the kids in the big pool.  There was a water fall to swim under and a big slide.  My kids are pretty good swimmers but I was thankful that they had life vests for extra safety.  The pool closed at 10 and I was surprised my kids lasted that long.  I figured this would be our one night to get in bed at a reasonable hour but we like to party hard on vacations!  :)