But upon closer examination, we thought Animal Kingdom would be the next most enjoyable park for Audrey...and we were right! The combination of animals and Disney characters was just perfect for her! I've heard lots of mixed reviews about the Animal Kingdom. It doesn't have as many rides as the other parks, so it probably isn't quite as exciting. But it is still impressive. Here are a few things I liked about the park:
1. The scenery/landscaping/decor/atmosphere is amazing! SO MUCH DETAIL went into every little part of that park. I think it is far more impressive than the Magic Kingdom in that sense.
2. The Lion King show and the Finding Nemo show were phenomenal, Broadway quality productions...those two shows combined are just about worth the price of admission.
3. I was also impressed with the number/variety of animals that we saw. And the environments they were in (an Asian jungle, a tropical rainforest, an African safari) were way cooler than what you would find at a zoo.
4. For Audrey, it was the perfect place to see Disney characters. The lines were not nearly as long as Magic Kingdom, so she got to see many of her favorites!
5. The safari ride was really cool. We didn't ride any of the other big rides, as Audrey was not big enough (and I don't do rollercoasters), so I can't judge them. But even without riding them, we had a great day at the park.
On to the pictures and a quick summary of our day!
We started at the Festival of the Lion King show. The show was very impressive for us, but a bit overwhelming for Audrey. Some parts she liked; some parts she was a little scared. Definitely worth seeing though!
Then we headed to the character greeting trails. We had to wait in a short line for Chip and Dale and Mickey, but there was no line at all for Goofy or Donald...this was a big highlight of the day for Audrey!
Next, we had lunch. Then we took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Audrey was very insistent that we find a goat! So we went to the petting zoo, where she was actually brave enough to pet some goats and a sheep too!
After taking the train back, we went to the Pangani Forest to find more animals (Audrey's goal for the day seemed to be to see as many animals as possible!). We saw birds, lots of fish, a hippo swimming under the water, gorillas and more.
Audrey fell asleep in her stroller after the Forest, but Daniel and I went ahead and walked through the Maharajah Jungle while she was sleeping. My favorite animal here was the tigers, and I was sad Audrey missed it because I think she would have liked them a lot! Daniel probably wasn't as big a fan of this section because he got pooped on by a bird while walking through here!
We got some ice cream, waited for Audrey to wake up and waited for the parade to start. This parade was probably not as exciting as the Magic Kingdom parade. But there were plenty of Disney characters in it, which made Audrey excited. Timon spotted her from across the road and came directly up to her to shake her hand!
We had a plan to watch the parade directly in front of the safari entrance, so we could get in line as soon as the parade was over. Our plan worked perfectly, as there was no wait at all for the safari (normally a very popular ride). I really wish I had a better lens/better photography skills. We did see a lot of cool animals (giraffes, lions, elephants, etc.) but I wasn't all that pleased with any of our pictures. 
After the safari, we hurried across the park to see the Finding Nemo musical. Again, extremely impressive! Audrey liked this one much more than Lion King. After each song, she clapped her hands and said, "Yay!" She even seemed to be following the story line a little. Every time Nemo came on she said, "Looking for Daddy? Find him?" (Nemo sings a song early on called "Where is my dad" so it was pretty easy for her to pick up on this idea).
After Nemo, Daniel took Audrey for a ride on the TriceroTop Spin, which is exactly like the Dumbo and Magic Carpet rides at Magic Kingdom, so she liked it.
On the way out of the park, we spotted the character greeting for Winnie the Pooh characters. Prior to this trip, all she knew about Pooh was: 1. Winnie the Pooh is on her bag of toys in the bath tub and 2. Eeyore is on her toothbrush. But then we went on the Pooh ride at Magic Kingdom, and she loved it. And she started to spot Pooh and Eeyore and Tigger all over the place (we sure do live in a very commercialized world!). So, getting to meet them in person was very fun for her!
That ends our busy day at the Animal Kingdom! I will have one more vacation post tomorrow, and then it is back to the boring real world and much shorter blog posts!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment