Day 5: Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was also very close to our resort, so we only had a 5 minute bus ride.

 Our first stop was The Lion King show!  We got fast pass+ to it so that we would be close and Emily was picked to go up with the cast.  I think she was in heaven!  It's a great show, a mini-Broadway version of The Lion King.

I promised the girls to get their face painted.  They had them at other parks, but I thought Animal Kingdom would be a fun day to do it!  Emily picked a holiday theme, Candy Cane girl and Ella had lots of different choices, but ended up with Rainbow Rainforest.  They loved it!

 We went on the Safari ride, which is always fun.  We were very close to some animals.  We saw a giraffe munching on the trees.  We also went on a little walk around to see the gorillas and other animals a little after the safari. We had a lunch reservation at the Tusker House.  It was pretty neat inside since we were in "Africa".  The food was a little different, but definitely found some good food.  Donald was the greeter.  We saw Safari Mickey, Safari Goofy, and Safari Daisy.  It was our only time to meet Daisy this trip!  We saw her around more last time we were at Disney.

 They have a little parade for the kids were the had instruments.  They had a great time here!

After our hike to see the gorillas, we went on the train to the petting zoo area. Rafiki's Watch.  The girls were given a scavenger hunt book where they earned badges when they completed each page.  This was a huge hit!  They have items they could get all over the park, but we just found out about it.  

They met Rafiki while looking at the animal hospital part and earning some badges while Poppy waiting in line for them.  :)  They enjoyed petting the animals, especially the hog.  It was feeding time, so then the animals were too busy to be petted.  We decided to head back to get a spot for the Jingle Jungle Parade.

The parade was pretty neat!   I loved the bubbles that came out of Donald's float (I believe it was his).  After the parade, we had fast passes to Mt. Everest ride.  We only had 3 and it was a big roller coaster, so it was Roy, Poppy, and I.  It was a smooth roller coaster and we enjoyed it!  Next, we saw the Nemo The Musical show.  We got there right when it started so we had back row seats and it wasn't too comfortable, but the show was very good!  I love musicals!  It was getting late, but the girls got excited when they saw the dinosaur rides.  We decided to give the ride Dinosaur a try, but Cita and Ella decided not to go on it b/c it was dark+bumpy.  Good choice!  It was a very bumpy ride.  Emily wanted to ride on the Primeval Whirl (little roller coaster), so she and Roy rode that while Ella and I did the Triceratop Spin (similar to Dumbo).  Everyone was getting hungry, but Roy and Emily were still in line for the ride so Poppy, Cita, and Barbara went to Flame Tree BBQ which was on my list of must-tries.  It closed an hr before the park, so I didn't get to try it.  They weren't impressed.  We decided to leave so that we could head to Downtown Disney even for a couple of hrs. 

 Last look at the "Tree of Life".  So beautiful!