Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was new to all 4 of us. The last time I thought about going was when Griffin was 3. It had just opened up and people were telling us it was not worth it. I think all the park needed was a few years to add attractions.

Since we only had 3 days on our passes, I decided to do half a day at Animal Kingdom(early hour was here) and the other half at Hollywood Studios(Extra Magic Hours was here).

After a few days of pulling late nights, my kids were having a hard time waking up. I went to bed the night before(2:30 I think???) thinking I would wake up at 6:00 and enjoy a nice cup of coffee on the balcony before waking the kids and packing. It did not go according to how I planned.

I did wake up early....... just moved very slowly(should have had that coffee)! I did however get a couple of shots from our balcony and the room.

My camera fogged up as soon as I stepped outside but I took the picture anyways. Our room overlooked a golf course. 

 

Here is the room and the girls that wouldn't get up.

Once we finally got ready and rushed down to catch the bus.........we were 5 minutes too late! 

What do you do if your kids make you miss the bus?

You torture them with pictures!

 Ella used her own money to buy these Minnie ears. It  matched her outfit perfectly.

After a long wait, we were excited to finally see this....

Since we were only spending half a day here, I wanted to do as much as we could. We raced off to Expedition Everest to get a fastpass for later. Once we got it, we raced back over to Africa for Kilimanjaro Safaris. We had about a 20 minute wait, the weather wasn't too bad and the animals were out. 

I read that the best time to do the safari is in the morning. We saw a majority of the animals up and alert.

 

At the center of Animal Kingdom is the Tree of Life. There were several photo opportunities throughout the park.

When it was our fastpass time, we headed back to Asia to ride Expedition Everest.

We all loved this ride! It takes you to the top of the mountain and then back down backwards. It wasn't too fast and no flips. I wish we could have rode this one again but we had to make sure not to miss The Festival of the Lion King!

Wait that's not the Lion King! 

That's the huge doughnut we split right before the show!

 This was such a great show!

By this time of the day, it was getting hot. We cooled off in their misters.

The last thing we did at Animal Kingdom was It's Tough to be a Bug. This was a 3D film and live show with little surprises throughout. We thought it was really cute!

I wish we could have stayed longer. The only place we did not get to was DinoLand. Since Ella was riding all the roller coasters, I figured we would need more time at Hollywood Studios. 

(Looking back.....we could have stayed longer to experience DinoLand. Due to Extra Magic Hours and using fastpasses, we had plenty of time at Hollywood Studios!)

Last stop..........Hollywood Studios!