Saturday, June9th, 2012
Today was early hours
for Animal Kingdom so we were all up by 6:30am and headed to the first bus at
7:30am. The park opened at 8am and we
headed directly for Expedition Everest rollercoaster!! Everyone was tall enough to ride this year J Then we headed to Africa so we would be close to check in for our Wild Africa Trek. We had plenty of time to walk through the
Pangani Forest Exploration Trail for a preview of what Alan and Mommy would be
exploring on the Wild Africa Trek. When
we finished the Pangani Forest it was almost 9am our meeting time to check in
at the Tusker House Restaurant. Missy
and Aidan got there shortly after we did and the moms and boys got all checked
in and sent Daddy, Eddie and Joey on their way with the camera. I can’t believe I was going to trust the
included photo CD for the big excursion!!
We had to step on the scale and get harnessed up at the beginning of the
trip. Everyone had a souvenir stainless
steel water bottle with a carabineer clip hooked into their vests. We also to hooked up to ear pieces so we
could hear Stephanie, Chapin and the other helper tour guides along the way.
We were on our way
with tour guides Stephanie and Chapin through the Pangoni Forest. Our first stop was to learn about the
Hippos. Another guide, Dan, took us to
the edge 6 at a time while he called to them and threw lettuce to them so they
would swim close to us!! They are
awesome and their teeth are HUGE too.
They have 2 front teeth that point straight out of their mouth. They live and travel in what used to be
called bloats, but are not known as pods.
They are relatives to whales and dolphins. They can be under water for 5-8 minutes and
live to be about 40years old.
After the hippos we
clipped in the safety guides to cross 2 rope bridges directly above the
crocodiles!! We learned that they pant
like a dog to cool off in the heat. They
also have 65-70 teeth and they grow 2 sets of teeth a year!! The animal reserve on the park has 26
crocodiles. They can swim super fast,
but aren’t really very fast on land.
After the crocodiles
we took off all the safety harnesses and boarded a truck to see the
savanna. We got a really “cool”
washcloth that you can re-wet and refridgerate to stay cool!! The truck was also equipped with binoculars
to see the animals even better. Our
guides told us all about the animals we were seeing. My favorite was the giraffe of course. We also saw elephants, rhinos, gazelles,
lions, cheetahs, and more!!
Next we stopped for
an AMAZING lunch that was catered by the Tusker House Restaurant and served to
us on the Savanna in tins. We had yogurt
with granola, fruit salad, brie and dried apricots on the top level of tins and
in the bottom we had air dried beef, serrano ham, awesome biscuits, smoked
salmon with creamy dill sauce on top of slaw, and a pecan dessert. The boys had more kid friendly food in their
tins J
After lunch we had a
short tour of past the future zebra enclosure.
We learned that zebras can be very MEAN and they will be kept away from
the other animals to keep the other animals safe. The North safari tour was short and we were
done with the 3 hr tour before we knew it.
Part of our ticket price was donated to the Disney Wildlife Foundation
and we got to vote for ours to go to elephants, wild cats, another animal I
can’t remember, or the general fund. We
also received an exclusive pin to wear.
I highly recommend this experience J
Daddy and the guys
were having some sweet treats at Tusker House Restaurant when we got back. Missy crew showed up shortly after
and we decided for the families to go do their own thing for a while.
Daddy took us to Camp
Micky and Minnie to meet the characters, but the line was way LONG so we opted
to see the Festival of the Lion King show instead. The boys were getting very tired in the
show. We headed to Dinoland U.S.A. for a
few more rides. First was Dinosaur
where you go back in time to save the last dinosaur. Then we hit the Primeaval Whirl ride that is
part roller coaster, part spinning tea cups.
Joey wasn’t tall enough so we did the parent swap. Mommy, Alan and Eddie rode first. Daddy too Joey on the TriceraTop Spin twice
and switched places with Mommy. The rain
was moving in and we were all tired so we headed to the park exit. We saw Goofey on our way out of the
park. Eddie was upset we were leaving as
usual and convinced Daddy to let him get his souvenir Mickey Wizzard hat on the
way out of the park. We had to RUN to
the bus to catch it in time. Alan and
Mommy are journaling while the other take a short nap before we head to Epcot
for a nice dinner out and hopefully dry nighttime laser light show tonight.
WoW!!! I had no idea how much we could pack into one
night. We headed to Epcot around 7pm and
went on Spaceship Earth with no wait.
Then we checked the character wait time and decided to do that another
day. We headed to the World Showcase to
find good seats for the Illuminations:
Reflections of Earth Laser/Firework show. We found a wall to sit on between England and
France and Daddy and Eddie went to get food for dinner from Morroco. The show was AWESOME as usual!!! We decided since it wasn’t raining we would
RUN to the monorail to get to Magic Kingdom for their fireworks at 10pm. We made it to Main Street right as the show
was starting J They had a bonus Electrical Parade at 11pm
because it got canceled last night due to rain.
We had an hour to go on rides and thanks to the medical pass we were
able to ride Buzz Light Year and Mommy, Eddie and Alan did Space Mountain while
Joey and Daddy did the People Mover. We
got off about the same time and took some Photo Pass pictures with the castle
lit up as we made our way back to Main Street for the Electrical Parade. Joey and Daddy went into the Confectioners
Shop to get some Mickey Ears for Joey’s souvenir. He even got his name put on the back. The boys got curbside seats for the parade
and it was off to the monorail and bus back to the hotel. Mommy spotted a tag engraving machine so Alan
and Mommy made Alan’s souvenir tag and caught up with Daddy at the bus
stop. When we got there Joey was asleep
on Daddy’s lap. He was falling asleep
while he was walking!! I still can’t
believe we hit 3 parks in one day and saw as much as we’ve seen today. It was after midnight when we got back to the
hotel and time for BED!!
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