 Today is early enty
at Animal Kingdom (AK). That means up and at 'em early, but not
TOO early since we plan to drive over instead of take the bus.
Got the girls up just before 7am, and we were ready to go by just after
7:30. Still, we arrived a couple minutes after 8am, so the park
was already open. LOTS of people were arriving - seems that
Expedition Everest is really packing them in!
 The plan was for the girls to head to the Safari, and I
would grab Everest Fastpasses. The PROBLEM was that a CM
announced that Everest was closed due to technical difficulties and
Fast Pass was off as well. :-(
I quickly caught the girls and sent them off to Dinoland instead while
I grabbed Safari fast passes. While I was gone they did Primeval
Whirl and we headed over to ride Dinosaur when I got back.
Dinosaur is one of the few rides that Maddy doesn't care for, but she
braved it out and just closed her eyes through the whole thing!
:-)
 We left Dinoland and headed out the past
the new Nemo Theatre (which they are enclosing and should be nice and
air-conditioned when it opens! Yea! Off past Everest - but
its still closed! :-( But they are giving out fast passes - with
a 2:30 return time!!!! Yowch! I had to wait about five
extra minutes before I was allowed to get a second fast pass and then
we were off. I just hope this thing starts running by then - and
the lines are going to be CRAZY later….
 We headed on and
stopped off to do the Maharaja Trek while it was still relatively
cool. (In Animal Kingdom this typically means anything less than
sun surface temperatures!) :-) To be fair, AK was a tad bit
cooler this year than in the past. They had more of the cooling
fans running, and with more stores and attractions having A/C now it
gives you a bit chance to cool off. Anyway - the trek was a bit
disappointing today. While the bats were fun - a bit awake and
some looking around, the tigers were zonked out completely. We
saw very few animals today and even the birds were all high in the
trees where you could not easily see them. Ah well, maybe next
time.
 Off to use our fast
pass on the Safari and good thing. The standby line was WAY back
and even the Fast Pass line was extra long this morning. Guess
all those Everest wannabes were all back here riding the next
favorite. They let the Fast Pass people through pretty quickly
and seemed surprised at the backup so I guess it had not been backed up
for long.
Soon we were off on our Safari and it was a good day. We saw lots
of animals along the way and even had an ostrich decide to lead the way
for a bit. :-) He got in front  of us just as we were supposed to be
chasing down the poachers, but got off the road fairly quickly so we
could continue on our chase. Finished up the safari and had a
great time. Now it was time for a bite to eat. We have some
extra counter service meals to use up and everyone is a bit hungry so
we stopped at Tusker House for a couple cinnamon buns (snacks), a
breakfast plate with eggs, bacon and hashbrowns and some bisuits and
gravy.
Everything was very good, and then we headed out to spend some time
shopping followed by some time in Camp Mickey Minnie. We saw
Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Koda from Brother Bear. Mickey was
there as well, but his line was WAY too long. We waited until
about 10 minutes before Festivale of the Lion king and then stopped
over to see if there was room. They were seating all the people
and holding back on letting any more in. The line was not long so
we waited and there was PLENTY of room for us and about 150 more behind
us (at least)! About 3/4's of the Giraffe section had no one in
it! We got a great seat and didn't have to wait in that
line. Nice!
 Show was great as always, and now that it
is air conditioned its even better! ;-) We checked Mickey's
line once more before leaving the area but as expected (especially with
the show getting out!) it was very long. We'll catch him another
time!
It was about 12:30 and the girls were ready for lunch. Brinn
wasn't too hungry today, so she ate very light for lunch - opting for
just a frozen lemonade. We ate at Pizzafari and I had the
chicken caesar salad (very good), and Kristen and Maddy each had
pizza. We all had the frozen lem onade for dessert, but Kristen and I chose the Strawberry Lemonade. Everything
was very good and again - too much! We are actually learning to
leave food on our plates! ;-) Because exploding just isn't
a good option!
More shopping and its closing in on Everest return time. We made sure it was running and then headed
back. We waited out our return time at the Everest store and
Brinn mulled over what to do… She WANTED to try it, but that drop
really freaked her out. So, she decided to pass. As
we went get in line, it was WAY out into the park. But only
about a 15 minute wait. The standby line on the other hand was a 2 HOUR wait!
Yikes! Can't imagine. Brinn walked through the queue with
us and then we told them she needed the 'chicken exit'. A nice CM
even walked her to the store to wait for us. It worked out great
and she was only alone a couple minutes.
 The ride was AWESOME! Loved it and
they did a great job. I think I need to ride it about 20 more
times to take everything in, and I look forward to doing it!
:-) I can see why people say be ready to see the Yeti -
your time with him is very fleeting! But he looked very cool and
again - they did a great job all around with this attraction. The
details and theming around the ride are great!
OK - that is it for us - we headed out of the park and stopped at
Rainforest Café on the way for a new set of yearly pics with the
girls. Upon closer inspection the ones from Downtown Disney were
a bit blurry and needed a retake! :-) As we headed out to
the parking lot the tram was ready and waiting for us. How
convenient is THAT!? Ours was the first stop and we even
remembered where the car was. Although the fact that the horn
goes off when you push the lock door button on the keyring DID
help… :-)
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We
headed on back to the room and once again we just out ran the
rain. It
held off until we were in the room. We all took a couple hour nap
and
then got up (to a downpour outside!) to get ready to go to Jiko for
dinner. I LOVE this place and the girls tolerate it for me!
;-) So -
back to the car and BACK to the Animal Kingdom area! It was
still
raining, but starting to slow down now. Thank goodness for valet
parking on these rainy days. Sure does keep you dry. Time
to bump up
the tip for the valet attendant! :-)
After dinner the rain had stopped. We headed
outside to see if any
animals were milling about and we were not disappointed. We saw
several different giraffes, zebras, deer and cattle. But the
highlight
of our time outside was talking to CM's Rosewitha from Nambia and
Elaine from South Africa. They were wonderful to chat with and so
very
knowledgable about the animals and their countries. The girls
were
asking lots of questions, and we even talked about the parks and
rides. A VERY enjoyable end to our evening, and we finished off
with a
nice picture of the girls with Rosewitha and Elaine and exchanged email
addresses so we could send them the picture. (Oh, and they
LOVED the
CM appreciation cards the girls gave them! Its so much fun when
the
kids have a way to say thanks to the CM's)