After a picture of the kids at the entrance (beautifully landscaped, I especially thought the flowering trees growing into the ticket offices were particularly lovely), we headed through the Oasis area and checked out lots of different kinds of small animals and birds. Densely wooded, it was quite a lot cooler in there, and not so crowded. We crossed the bridge to Discovery Island and had breakfast from the Safari Coffee stand - bagels, muffins, danish and drinks. We checked out some of the retail opportunities nearby, and then headed for Camp Minnie-Mickey, where the first Festival of the Lion King show was just starting.
Esme was impressed by the lady in the pretty peacock outfit spinning on a harness hanging from the ceiling, and Aidan really liked the guy who juggled fire, lit his own feet on fire, and put the fire in his mouth! What a very cool fun show! We were in the giraffe section and had to bleat giraffe-like on cue. The music was terrific and the performers were amazing.
When we exited the theatre, Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy were each available in their own little hut for autographs and pictures. We speedy-quick joined the Minnie line and didn't have to wait long. What a terrific Minnie! She was so animated (pun intended, ha-ha) and didn't need to say one word to get across her message! She flirted shamelessly with the guy in front of us and was sweetness itself to Aidan and Esme.
As we were leaving Camp Minnie-Mickey we saw Pocahontas so Esme took a quick minute to get her autograph and a picture with her. She made a point of telling her that she has seen her movie. :)
Back on Discovery Island, we went to see the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show. Jim and I saw it at Disneyworld in 2006, and I think it was somewhat longer then...or maybe I'm just remembering it that way! Anyway, the kids loved it, as we knew they would - especially the part at the end when the bugs crawl underneath you to get out of the theatre!
We saw a few more animals on our way to Africa, where we picked up FastPasses for the Kilimanjaro Safari, and then took a walk through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. There we saw a lot of animals, including the ears and nose of a hippo (the rest of him was underwater - Jim and Aidan hung around until they saw the whole thing), some meerkats, and a few gorillas.
We still had some time before it was our FastPass time, so we stopped at the Harambe Fruit Market to buy bananas, oranges, a hot pretzel and some drinks, and right there just happened to be a young woman named Elina from Namibia teaching us about Africa! So we sat down in her class and listened until she was through. She gave the children little certificates showing that they attended the Harambe school.
The Kilimanjaro Safari was terrific! We boarded a big bus-like vehicle and headed out, with our tour guide/driver pointing out all the really cool animals, who live in the park and create their own habitat. The elephants are allowed to knock over trees, the herbivores "mow" the grass, the giraffes keep the leaves cleaned up, etc. We also learned that every single animal in the Animal Kingdom has to be rounded up and "put away" for the night in its own pen...and that's why the Animal Kingdom closes at 5 pm, when the other parks stay open later. The keepers have to collect the animals!
This is a type of stork - a really ugly type! It is a scavenger, and it is indeed as big as it looks behind that fence. It is about as tall as me. Eeewwww!
Hello Timon!
A sleepy bored gorilla.
These aren't American Alligators, but rather crocodiles, instead!
Here's a baobab tree. I'll always think of this kind of tree as The Little Prince's tree. Did you know that they only have leaves three months of the year? The rest of the time the tree is "hibernating," which allows the baobab a really long lifespan. Our guide told us this one is almost a thousand years old.
African cattle.
This little guy has racing stripes. :)
A giraffe dad and his little giraffe.
Hello Mr. Elephant! Part of the safari includes a bit of a story line where the passengers "help" to save a baby elephant in the reserve from poachers. Okay, we didn't really do anything to help, and even Esme could tell the baby elephant was animatronic, but it was fun anyway! This guy is for real, though.
Here's another one. When he saw this picture, Jim said he was so busy taking pictures that he never really got a look at this elephant! "Good picture," he said.
White rhinos came right up to our bus - in one case, we had to wait for one to cross the road before we could continue down it! They are SO big - this one was so close I could have touched it if I was brave enough. :)
Here's the one that took its time crossing the road.
We left Africa, after picking up a monkey WebKinz for Aidan and a caterpillar one for Esme (can't believe we bought WebKinz at Disney!), and went to Asia. By this time it was really lunchtime, so we decided to go to the Anandapur Yak & Yeti Restaurant. Given the name and the distinctly Indian style of decor, we were surprised to find mainly Chinese and Japanese cuisine, but we adapted! (Jim later filled out a suggestion card saying they might consider adding some nan & curry to the menu.) The kids had egg rolls and fried rice, and Jim and I shared some sashimi and potstickers. All of us also shared some sorbet - lemon, raspberry and mango. Mmmmmm.
After lunch, we boarded the Wildlife Express Train to the Rafiki's Planet Watch section of the park. We passed the very large area where all the animal pens are, where the animals are kept at night. We learned that every animal has a "day off," during which it rests in its pen for the day, and we saw one of the elephants that was having her day off.
Upon arrival, we walked through the Habitat Habit and Conservation Station areas, and saw a short talk from some park keepers about hawks and owls. They had one of each on their gloves, and while the owl was quite calm, the hawk was a bit agitated! Apparently she doesn't like goats, and the goats in the petting area next to the stage were being fed, moving around and making a lot of noise. I think she was picturing goat-on-a-plate for her next meal.
After the kids had a chance to see the birds of prey up close (no touching please!), we went into the petting area, where none of the animals were close enough to the edges of their pens for petting. The kids enjoyed looking anyway, and we washed up and walked back to the train station. We didn't have to wait at all to board another train back to the rest of the park.
After we returned on the train, Jim, Aidan and Esme got FastPasses for the Kali River Rapids ride, and we went on the Maharajah Jungle Trek walk. We saw a lot of animals!
A Komodo dragon, basking in the sun.
My favorite animal: in this section of the park it seemed like there were passels of tigers! We saw at least seven.
We were all tired and footsore, but still having fun!
Quick! Tigers! Aidan-in-a-blanket for lunch!
When it was their turn, Jim, Aidan and Esme went on the Kali River Rapids ride! (I stayed behind, as I was not "prepared to get soaked," as it states on the park map.) They loved the ride...Jim and Aidan had a few drops of water on their clothes, but Esme got soaked! She said, "Mom! The water came down Right On Me!!!" She was so excited, she didn't mind being wet at all. Here they are, upon their return.
We left Asia and went to DinoLand USA, where we rode on the DINOSAUR ride - which was pretty scary! Esme pretended to faint in the Dino Institute Shop, after the ride, but it was all in fun...we very nearly missed being made extinct with the dinosaurs, by an asteroid!
As we exited the DinoLand area, we saw lots of these little lizards - they were everywhere! Some of them were as big as my finger, and some were as small as Esme's finger!
Back to Discovery Island and out of the park, we stopped for a photo on the bridge in front of the Tree of Life.
We headed back toward our hotel and went to the Kobe Japanese Steakhouse for dinner. We sat at a table with another family and had our dinner hibachi-style, with the food expertly cooked right in front of us. Aidan and Esme (as usual) had shrimp, Jim had steak and shrimp, and I had salmon. It was all perfect. But of course our meal also included miso soup, salad with ginger dressing, vegetables, noodles and fried rice. They had the nerve to ask if we wanted dessert (ha!) but we had to give up. Delicious.
And our chef was very amusing, as well. Lots of corny jokes and talented knife-and-fire wielding. Why do they all do that trick with the onion ring volcano? When he was handing around veggies, he put one little onion slice on Esme's place and said "kid's meal." She was still looking at him with her mouth open when he laughed and replaced it with a bigger serving of veggies. "Okay, okay, big-kid's meal."
Back at our hotel, we decided that since we weren't completely exhausted this time, we would watch a movie - so we ordered up Night at the Museum 2, which the children enjoyed greatly and of which Jim and I saw the beginning and end...having slept through the middle. :)