February 10th - The Animal Kingdom

Today we went to the Animal Kingdom. From the moment that you enter the park, you get the feeling that you are in the rainforest. It is really beautiful and calming, which was just what we needed after the frantic pace of the last couple of days.

We headed back to the Kilimanjaro Safari and the line was already 25 minutes long. We grabbed Fast Passes and move on to the Maharaja Jungle Trek. We saw some pretty cool animals on the Jungle trek, like some huge fruit bats. On our way out, we could hear some very loud noises, so we went to see what it was. It was a group on monkeys way up in the trees. They were yelling back and forth at each other and just going nuts.

After the Trek, we went to see “Flights of Wonder” which is a bird show. The kids got restless after about 10 minutes, so it was time for us to go.

We went back and hit the Safari tour via the Fast Pass line. We went past hoards of people who were waiting in the regular stand-by line. On the Safari, we saw a ton of cool animals like giraffes, okapis, ankole cattle, bongos, warthogs, ostriches, elephants, hippos, rhinos, and lions. What a cool ride! The kids loved it too.

We went to the Flame Tree Barbecue for lunch, which was quite tasty. The outdoor seating was like another bird show. We were surrounded by ducks and ibis, which were beautiful and all waiting for some small children to drop a hot dog bun or a french fry. At one point, Charlie started crying, “The duck ate my lunch!”

From lunch, we went to play in the Boneyard in Dinoland, which is a big playground. I followed Charlie all over the place and down the slides. We went over a bridge that was covered in a dinosaur skeleton, which was neat. On the other side of the bridge was an area where you could dig up bones of a woolly mammoth.

Next we went to see Finding Nemo, the musical. It was really neat. The actors held puppets of the sea creatures they portrayed. They hit all of the high points in the movie and the timing was just about perfect. Actually Charlie was really good for most of it, but got a bit restless towards the end saying, “I all done now. I all done now.” Sorry kiddo – just hang in there a bit longer.

On the way out of Dinoland, we stopped by a character photo stop and got pictures with Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger.

We walked around the Tree of Life to see all of the animals carved all over it. By now it was 3:30 or so and time for the exhausted Baccus family to go. The park closes at 5pm, so we decided to skip naptime today and just press to see what we could. We got back to the cabin and hung out for a little bit before heading out for dinner at a local Mexican place.