Sunday, Animal Kingdom

Sunday we got up and got to Animal Kingdom about 8:45am. It was really exciting to finally see DisneyWorld! We headed over for our first big ride. The kids went on TriceraTops (a Dumbo-like ride) and we all went on Primeval Whirl. It was a medium roller coaster that had spinning cars. Kyler didn't like the spinning, but assured us he did really like roller coasters. Next on the list was another Dinoland ride called Dinosaur. We have seen the movie, and this was what's called a 'dark ride', where you get in a car and go through dark tunnels, looking at scenes on the side. The problem was this one was very loud, and the idea was we were going back in time. Dinosaurs started popping out, roaring, and the man keeps yelling about how you're not going to make it, and there's a dino going to get in your car. By this time Kyler's screaming his head off, crying, with his head in my lap. Kipp's dealing with Ilea who's scared, but not hysterical. Kyler swore he was never going on another ride like that one! It was an awful way to set the day off. If only we had known! Because the height restriction wasn't that much, we figured it wouldn't be that scary. Ooops!


Next was the Kali River Rapids, where you get wet. Kyler again didn't want to go on it because he didn't want to get wet. It was 85 deg, and we told him he'd dry fast, it probably wouldn't be that bad. The rest of us loved it, but unfortunately Kyler did get wet, as we all did. He wasn't that bad because Kipp leaned over him, but the rest of us were pretty soaked.

While we dried off we went on a jungle hike, with animal displays, including bats (huge ones, from Asia), Gorillas, and Tigers. It was really neat. The whole park is beautiful, of course, with the giant Tree of Life in the middle, on an island. You can walk around the outside of the lake, or cross over the island like a central hub. We also took in a bird show which was great. There were tons of wild birds all the time, and the show had a few interesting ones.

Next big ride was Expedition Everest. It was the favorite of everyone but Kyler. It was a large roller coaster with a few twists. After you go for a while, you come to a stop because the track in front of you is torn up. Then you fall backward on a different track and shoot through the dark for a while. Then you stop again, and watch a shadow of the yeti tearing up your track ahead (which scared Kyler of course). You start going forward on still another track, zoom by an actual roaring Yeti this time, and finish the ride. It was great! The Yeti scared Kyler. He wasn't having a great day. We took a break and had lunch in the park at a pizza place.

After lunch we did the Pangani Forest Trail, which had different exhibits and went on the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was a long truck ride through a savanna-like setting. There were LOTS of animals, very close, including white rhino, lions, giraffe, elephants, these huge cattle with massive horns, antelope-types, zebra, ostrich, hippos, flamingos, and more. It was really interesting. The animals were very close, and it was neat to see.

Again we saw a couple of shows, one for Fesitval of the Lion King, which was very acrobatic, with songs, kind of a mini Cirque du Soleil style. The next was Pocohantas and her animal friends, which was pretty much for little kids.

We explored on our way to our last 2 shows. We saw a 3-D movie called It's Tough to be a Bug, with characters from Bug's Life. Hopper scared Kyler, as did some of the 3-D images. They really popped out at you! We missed the timing for Nemo play, so we took a train to a building with info exhibits on earth/zoo stuff. The weather wasn't great by this time, raining off and on. We got back to Finding Nemo - The Musical and enjoyed it. They wore black outfits with big puppets on their hands. It's hard to describe, but it was pretty effective. The park was closed when we got out, so we headed to our car.

We went to the store that night and got fried chicken. After dinner we went to explore the pool and hot tubs. There were 2 pools, 2 hot tubs, and one kiddie pool with a giant mushroom that spilled water like an umbrella. We had fun and finally got to bed.