This photo is from near the entrance of the park. It's hard to tell from this picture, but that tree above Marilu's head is the Tree of Life, and it's really large (and really fake). According to Google, it's 145 ft tall and 50 ft wide. Much like Cinderella's castle at Magic Kingdom or the geodesic dome at Epcot, it serves as an iconic centerpiece for Animal Kingdom.
It's worth pointing out that Lucas and my dad both got several comments about their shirts: Lucas's says "Powered by Bacon" and my dad is wearing one from In-N-Out, a fantastic hamburger restaurant located primarily in California. Interestingly, there was another kid with Lucas's shirt in the park that day.
The poor choice of photo location notwithstanding (try to ignore the tree smack dab in the middle), this is "Mt. Everest." It contained the Expedition Everest rollercoaster, which was my #2 favorite ride of the trip. I would highly recommend it to anyone that likes thrill rides. We had a Fast Pass, but I almost wish we had to wait longer in line since it was really well done, providing lots of thematic things to look at and read while waiting. In case you're wondering, you'll find out about my favorite ride of the trip on Day 4.
Afterwards, we walked the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, which gave us the opportunity to see several more animals. One of my favorites were the meerkats. They were all staring at something, but no one could figure out exactly what. It was kind of creepy in a "what do they know that I don't" sense.
The gorilla below is living the perfect life. He was just lying on his back in the corner, feet up in the air, and he just did not care. Not one bit.
Marilu and I got a picture with this character whose name I have no idea. The area we were in was called Rafiki's Planet Watch so I'll go out on a limb and guess this is Rafiki?
In case you're wondering why Lucas wasn't in the photo, he was off collecting badges (stickers) for his Wilderness Explorer book. The book was something kids could pick up (for free!) near the entrance of the park, and then there were 20-30 different locations throughout the park where employees were stationed, and they would teach the kids some animal factoid, usually through some sort of fun activity. After that was complete, the kids get a sticker for their book. It's a really simple concept, but it's a fantastic idea for getting kids engaged. They learn without even realizing it. That was likely the highlight of the park for Lucas. Well, maybe Expedition Everest. He is my son, after all.
The last area we visited was the newest, Pandora, which is based on James Cameron's movie Avatar. I'm not really sure how a fictional movie ties into an animal park, but it was easily the most visually impressive area of the park so I'll let it slide.
We used our last Fast Pass on the Na'vi River Journey ride, which was a boat ride that went through a bunch of areas from Pandora, the planet in Avatar. While it was amazing visually--including the best animatronic character I've ever seen--it was a rather slow, unexciting ride. I would actually compare it to It's a Small World, but without the music and a much better theme. As a result, Lucas and I came up with a running joke where we would say, "Well, at least it's more exciting than the Na'vi river ride" after going on other slow rides or, in one case, after going over a speed bump. :)
Unfortunately, we didn't get to go on the newest ride in Pandora, Flight of Passage. Apparently, it's amazing, but because it's the newest ride at any of the Disney parks, we weren't able to get a Fast Pass for it. And the wait was ridiculous. At one point earlier in the day, the wait time was upwards of 4 hours. By the time we got there, it was still over 2 hours, and we didn't care enough to even give it a thought.
During a short break, I asked the gang how things were going. Tidbit #1: Marilu's green drink is some sort of grog from Pandora. Well, thematically anyway. In reality, I think it was Budweiser (or something similar) with green food coloring. Tidbit #2: That little kid in the stroller next to Marilu LOVED Lucas. They made faces at each other for almost the entire time we were sitting there.
After Pandora, we left for dinner. Marilu made reservations at Sanaa, an African-themed restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge resort, located near the park.
The main highlight of the resort is that it encloses an area with several animals such as zebras and giraffes. You can go out on a raised walkway and get pretty close to them, as seen here.
Our seats in the restaurant weren't window seats, but if you were by a window, you could see animals wander by from time to time.
I had to take the picture below since I found it funny that in the sweltering heat of central Florida, we were sitting around a fire pit before we went into the restaurant. In the background, my dad is talking to one of the employees about the employee's home country, Botswana (I think it was Botswana). Lucas wasn't the only one of us to learn something that day!
I'll close this out by showing one of the highlights of dinner. Marilu was told by several friends that we had to get the bread service. It consisted of several different types of Naan bread (the restaurant was African-themed but the food was mostly Indian cusine) and 9 different sauces. Here's the description from the menu:
"Bread - Traditional Naan, Garlic-Ginger Naan, Spiced Naan, Onion Kucha, or Paneer Paratha. Accompaniments - Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, Mango Chutney, Tomato-Date Jam, Tamarind Chutney, Coriander Chuntey, Garlic Pickle, Red Chile Sambal, or Spicy Jalapeño-Lime Pickle"
I gotta admit, it was pretty damn good. The next time I go to an Italian restaurant and they bring me a loaf of bread and one or two dipping oils, it's going to be a major disappointment.
We were pretty stuffed after dinner, and combining that with the fact that our feet were sore from so much walking, we decided to head back to our resort for the night. I think we swam a bit and then went to bed early, in order to prepare for the next day at Epcot.
I do want to point out that Marilu and I both agreed that Animal Kingdom was the one park that we really regretted not seeing more of. We looked at the map at the end of the vacation and realized there were several things we completely missed. There parks are just so massive that I suppose that's bound to happen. Oh well, I guess it gives us a reason to go back some day, right?
1 comment:
All wonderful pictures, and the commentary brought them all to life. Great job. Looking forward to Day 3. Thanks for keeping up this blog. Lucas will enjoy it one day as he looks back on it as his journey from infancy to adulthood.
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