Disney’s Animal Kingdom- Wednesday, July 13, 2011

After a grueling day yesterday, even Julie agreed that we needed to slow down a little today. We decided that Disney’s Animal Kingdom was a park that wouldn’t require as much time. The heat was incredible. It was in the high 90s, and the heat index was at least 105. It didn’t keep the crowds away, though. The park was packed. It also seemed like there were fewer places to cool down. We had to take it easier today. Julie’s parents were joining us again, after Grandpa got his breakfast at Shoney’s, but John’s family was going to Disney Hollywood Studios instead.

Julie really wanted to ride on Expedition Everest, which was only being built the last time we were here. It was easy to find because the replica of Mount Everest now dominates the “Asia” side of the park. When we got there, we found that the line was already very long, so we got Fast Passes for later and headed to Dinoland. There was no wait at all for the Triceratops Spin, a Dumbo-like ride that used to be baby Anna’s favorite, so we went on that. Anna and Mom wanted to go on Dinosaur, a dark thrill ride where you get chased by a Carnotaurus. Dad remembered the ride being too intense for his tastes, so he and Emma waited in the gift shop for them.

By then it was time for the Fast Passes to Expedition Everest. The roller coaster takes you up to the top of “Mount Everest” where a Yeti threatens you. The coaster ends up going backwards for part of the ride. Julie and the girls went on, while Scott waited again. The girls descibed it as the “best roller coaster ever” and the three of them were all smiles when they got off.

Grandpa and Grandma Wright had caught up to us by that point. They went to get Fast Passes to the Kilimanjaro Safari while the girls rode on Everest. While we waited for those Fast Pass times, we walked through the Pangoni Forest trail, which is one of the walking trails to see live animals on. This trail is in the Africa section. Throughout the park, the heat was keeping the animals from doing much. Many of them were asleep in the shade, and who can blame them. We did enjoy the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, even though Julie was getting a little tired of hearing Scott say, “They almost look real!” It may be the first time that Anna and Emma both stayed awake through the whole thing. The ride rocked them to sleep when they were little.

We took time for lunch then at the Tusker House in Africa, and although we were outside, we were able to slow down, cool off, and rest. We made our way to the Festival of the Lion King. It’s Grandma Wright’s favorite, and we were pleased to see that it has been enclosed since we were here with Baby Anna. It allowed it to be air conditioned. The show is a mix of animatronic figures, acrobatics and singing songs from the Lion King movie. We all enjoyed it.

We made our way to the Maharaja Jungle Trek, the trail of Indian animals which includes Julie’s favorites- the fruit bats. Like the tigers, though, they weren’t doing much in the heat of the day.

The last attraction we saw was a new one that we hadn’t seen before-- Finding Nemo: The Musical. The show is a mixture of puppets and the live actors operating them. It’s an interesting visual experiment that gives you lots to look at in the underwater world of the fish. However, The Festival of the Lion King has the strength of Elton John’s songs to support it, and doesn’t really try to tell a story. Unfortunately, the songs in Finding Nemo aren’t that great, and weren’t in the movie. What’s more, even though the show runs for 40 minutes, so much of the story is left out or abbreviated that it might be hard to follow if you didn’t know the story already. We waited in a stand-by line to get in and ended up sitting on uncomfortable bleachers near the back of a very large theater. Still, it was fun to see.

That was enough for us. We had seen the highlights of the park that we wanted to see, so we made our way out of the park then, with the requisite stops at the gift shops. Anna surprised her Mom with a late birthday present: a Pirates of the Caribbean pin that she bought with her own money. We also got Schnitzel some squeaky toys. We made our way out of the park, stopping for pictures with Balloo from the Jungle Book. It was only late afternoon, and Grandpa and Grandma treated us to dinner at Denny’s. Then we spent the rest of the evening cooling off at the house. Just about everyone went swimming, and Mom even went in with her clothes on instead of a swimsuit. She was that hot and tired. When John’s family got back from Disney Hollywood Studios, we compared notes and made plans for tomorrow.