Day 2: Animal Kingdom

Tuesday, our second day at Disney World, we spent at Animal Kingdom. Again, we followed the schedule and found very few lines, but it was another hot day... in the mid-90's and very high humidity. Florida had record-breaking highs for this time of year while we were there. The above picture is all of us in front of the tree of life (a landmark at the Animal Kingdom). There was a show under the tree in 3D called, "It's Tough to Be a Bug". This was a favorite of Jesikah. I didn't really care for it since big black widows came down from the ceiling, and it felt like there were crawly bugs underneath our seats. The effects looked and felt very real though.

The kids and Eric started out on the TriceraTop Spin while I picked up fastpasses for the Expedition Everest. It's a Dumbo-type ride with Triceratops. They enjoyed that.

Another shot from Eric (above)

Then Eric and the girls when on another ride in Dinoland called Primeval Whirl where it's kind of a mini-roller coaster and you spin too. Alex didn't want to go and Jarem was too short so he stayed out with Alex. I got back just before they got on and took a couple of pictures. This was Jesikah's favorite today.

The Dinosaur ride was pretty scary. Jarem was probably most scared of that ride and the girls too. I didn't like it that much either. You go through the dark just wondering when something is going to pop out at you or chase you.

We found Goofy on the way to the Dinosaur ride, so we stopped for a photo.

Eric and Alex with Goofy too!

Walking through the Maharaja Jungle Trek, we saw these fruit bats spreading their wings in the sun

We also saw these Asian deer

And Asian cows?

This guy had just grown some giant antlers

And we found Baloo the Bear

At Rafiki's Planet Watch or Conservation Station, we went on a train ride and ended up in another area of the park where they had wildlife experts doing presentations with real animals. Jiminey Cricket was there.

Also, this is one of the only places to find Rafiki. Here, Rafiki is signing Jesikah's autograph book.

Now for the pic

Pocahontas was also there. None of the characters here at the conservation station had long lines, so that was nice.

While Eric was with Jesikah getting autographs, Tessa, Jarem and I were watching a wildlife expert show us an owl. Alex was sitting nearby with the backpack when this lady came and sat right next to him. Then she put her arm up like she was putting her arm around him and he's trying to scoot down because he thinks she's being too friendly, but the backpack is there and he doesn't want to make a scene. Now to most people, this wouldn't be a that big deal, but with Alex being shy and very embarrassed to sit by people he doesn't know, it was really funny. Eric had to sneak a picture and was laughing so hard about Alex's embarrassed face. It's hard to see his expression because it's a bit blurry.

Jesikah and Tessa with the owl and the wildlife expert who did the presentation.

This is the towel that we bought after going down Kali River Rapids. It's a whitewater rafting ride where you float down some rapids in a raft. This was Alex's favorite ride and he went twice. Depending on where you sit though, you can get seriously SOAKED! Jesikah and I were the not-so-lucky ones in our raft and we got drenched! So wet we could have wrung out all our clothes. We had to buy a towel in order to get somewhat dried off. Although it did feel good to get wet, it was uncomfortably wet. This is the towel Eric had seen earlier that we thought was really cute.

We saw this tiger at conservation station before heading back on the train.

On the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction, we got in these big real trucks and drove through the African wildlife reserve. It was excellent and we saw tons of animals up close. This was one of my favorite attractions of the day. These crocodiles along with the next few pictures are some animals that we saw.
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Thomson's gazelle...there were several of them

I loved this grouping of elephants

A closeup of mom and baby.

Beautiful flamingoes...there were lots of them.

African rhinos

Well, what do you know, Puumba is represented here with this warthog.

I believe this is an impala, supposedly a rare type.


A couple of other attractions worth noting...the Expedition Everest and the Lion King musical. Expedition Everest is the newest attraction at Animal Kingdom. You can see Everest in the above picture. It's a roller coaster going up Mt. Everest. Alex and Jesikah didn't want to go, and Jarem couldn't, so with fastpasses, Tessa, Eric, and I went twice. I usually like rollercoasters, but this one wasn't my favorite because it goes backwards. That made me feel a little weird. Expedition Everest, however, was Eric and Tessa's favorite ride of the day.

Our last attraction of the day was the Festival of the Lion King. This was my favorite of the day. It was a spectacular show with singers, dancers, fire twirlers, acrobats, and fun for the audience too. They sang all the songs from the Lion King movie with all the other stuff going on too. We all enjoyed it, and it was a perfect ending spot.

We headed back to the hotel around 4:00 to have a nap and dinner before heading back out to the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party later that evening. We had a good rest and a good buffet dinner at the hotel.