Animal Kingdom

 On this day Jackson learned how to unbuckle himself in his stroller!  Animal Kingdom ended up being Katie's favorite of the 4 parks!

 Jackson was less than thrilled.  Here we are on the Triceratop Spin.  He absolutely did not want to ride this.

 But Katie was too short to ride completely on her own.  And Dad and Collin were riding the Primeval Whirl.  So he was forced to ride 3 times with Katie and me and then twice with Katie and Dad.  Sweet boy.

 Years ago, might have been 1999ish, Disney World had a Zoological Park.  This was before an official Animal Kingdom.  I remember a mommy taking her daughter out of my class for 2 days when I worked in Florida to take her to the new Animal Kingdom.  And I thought to myself, "well, I will NEVER...."  Once I moved away from Florida I thought maybe I should never say never.  :)

The Boneyard playground.  Kid's loved it.  Jackson was thrilled to be out of the stroller.

Commentary on attractions:

1.  The Oasis Exhibits:  this right here is part of the old zoo.  You can see lots of fun animals here.  Kids favorite to see:  the anteater.  On a side note for the Disney history lovers:  the orginal zoo was on "Discovery Island" a real island near the Magic Kingdom.  If you are looking at the islands while riding the Monorail from the ticket and transportation center, you can see an old abandoned Disney water park.  The island just opposite that is the old zoo.  I read an interesting story about some guys that snuck out to the old zoo island and looked around and took pictures.  Just a little fun facts for those of you that love the Dis like me.

2.  It's Tough to be a Bug! - scared the caca out of our kiddos.  None of them liked it.  I did of course.  Except for the exiting cockroaches.

3.  Discovery Island Trails - so fun to look at the big tree and see all the animals carved into the trunk.

4.  Festival of the Lion King - only Matt and Collin sawthis as I was back at the condo taking naps with Katie and Jackson.  They loved it, of course.

5.  Greeting Trails - I believe this area was to be reserved for the make-believe animals of Disney, like Pete's Dragon.  If you are a parking customer, which we were this trip, we noticed that one of the parking lots was named Unicorn.  That is for this section of Animal Kingdom that never got made.  Also, you can see dragon wings at the entrance to Animal Kingdom.

6.  Kilimanjaro Safari's - a fun ride that Katie, Jackson and I did not get to do this time due to naps.

7.  Pangani Forest Exploration Trail - more zoo stuff but a fun walk;  we got to see some very large bats and tigers up close.

8.  Wildlife Express Train out to Habitat Habit, Conservation Station, and Affection Section - none of the fam did these attractions this time.  :(  return trip is a must

9.  Flights of Wonder - great show about birds.  Collin loved it.

10.  Maharajah Jungle Trek - oopsie, nope, this is where we saw the big bats and the tigers up close. I have no idea what that other trail was...

11.  Kali River Rapids - Matt and Collin loved!

12.  Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain - We loved this ride!!!  Katie and Collin rode it 3 times, due to the rider switch program!!  For Disney freaks like us, a question:  did you notice that as you are finishing up the ride and waiting for the track to switch from backward to forward, they used to shake or rumble the tracks while you heard Yeti sounds?  Then as the roller coaster took off the big animatronic Yeti tries to reach down and grab you!  Currently they are showing only a shadow of the Yeti up on the side of the mountain.  Miss the old way.  When we got home this evening we had to find out the answer to the missing Yeti.  He apparently broke 6 months after Everest opened!  We also found that Disney made a movie about building this ride.  So Collin and I stayed up until the wee hours watching the Expedition Everest movie!

13.  The Boneyard - a fun playground all our kids enjoyed

14.  Finding Nemo:  The Musical - Jackson's favorite thing here!!  Great show!  We are still singing "Just keep swimming".  Especially love the "That's my dad" song.  As a side note:  we loved the Tarzan Rocks show that used to be here.  A unique show on roller skates.  It was really cool.

15.  Primeval Whirl - Katie was VERY disappointed that she could not ride this.  Apparently Six Flags over Texas has the same ride and she could ride it there.  But she is too short to ride it here.  Collin didn't ride this ride at Six Flags because he was a little nervous, but rode it at Disney World at least 4 times!

16.  Triceratop Spin - We've scarred Jackson for life on this one.

17.  Dinosaur - Once Collin and Katie rode with me, Matt was certain neither would return to ride with him on the rider switch.  Katie returned.  Neither loved it.  I still give it 2 thumbs up!

This night we ate dinner out of the park since Animal Kingdom closes earlier than the others and we did not purchase the park hopper pass.  We found a Cici's pizza.  Not a safe place to take Jackson to eat but we managed by packing him his own dinner and letting him drink Sprite!  He felt special!

Monday, July 16, 2012  Day 6