Orlando, Part 2

Today was our Disney's Animal Kingdom day.  It's a neat little companion park.  We got up early, had some magic pancakes, and drove over with all of us (including Shannon and Family) in the Car.  It was really nice to have a big car on this trip.

We actually got there a little before the park opened, so we hung out by the Christmas tree in the entrance and had some coffee.  The place selling coffee also had gigantic Doughnuts and Cookies.  I declined, but we ended up getting a cookie to share with everyone on the way out of the park.

They had some neat things to see on the way in, people were standing around with huge spiders in boxes and neat bones for the kids to touch.  I liked that part.  The first ride we went on was one of those 3d+things poking you and air spraying you theatres called "it's hard to be a bug".  I liked it, but Tyler was terrified of the whole experience, and that was before the bugs attacked us.  Fortunately, he was gone by then, he would have really been spooked by that.

Expedition to Everest was their big coaster, and we went on that with the Hall Boys.  Tyler was too small, but we figured out you could do a parent swap and the second parent got to take two other people along, so we parlayed that into a couple of extra rides for interested kids.

They had a more Kid-friendly area nearby that we went to.  It had a dumbo-style ride that Tyler went on three times and really liked.  Nearby there was another ride that Tyler was tall enough for, a ride through a dark, animatronic dinoscape.  It moved a lot.  We told Tyler it might jostle him a bit, so he said the rid was a little "jossly".  Was dark and spooky for him, too, but he felt brave for having done it.  We got him a latex dino puppet to celebrate.

Nemo the musical.  A 30-minute stage production about the nemo movie.  Fun to watch, though Tyler wet his pants and had to use the  restroom halfway through.   Interesting staging tricks to move the fish around the stage.

The Safari was next, a wide, segregated area with animals that they let roam 'free' and big jeeps that drive through.  We saw a lot of neat animals, Rhino, Zebra, Giraffes, and several more whose name I don't remember.  We took lots of pictures, but I can't figure out how to get the blogger app to upload, so I'll have to share them another way.

We took a train to another area about conservation, the train ride was neat to see all the cages and other centers that they use to take care of the animals from the Safari.  At the end of the ride they had some more animal attractions: cute little tamarind monkeys, a petting zoo, and a presentation with a few animals.  I like any place with a petting zoo, and the cow they had was very friendly.

They had a Bird show as well that we went to.  Some of them flew *very* close to my head.  My favorite was actually during the pre-show where a parrot had been trained to take bottles and cans to the recycle bins, one flew by my head so close I could have touched him.  The show itself had some great birds, too.  Parrots, a hawk, an Owl, and many more.  Tyler liked it the best when one of the guys came out from the stage and sat on a bench next to us.

Then we caught a Lion King stage show that had clearly been inspired by Cirque de Solei.  They had some animatronics that were *stunningly* impressive.  They had a Simba that moved so often and with such detail that I was several times convinced their had to be someone inside.  I don't think their was, though.  Jessie's favorite part was watching Tyler's excited expression. He liked the performance so much he actually clapped on his own.

We did a couple more parent-swap rides on the Everest Coaster as the sun fell, and then we all made our way back home, put the kids to sleep, and then fell asleep soon after.

-N