Disney World - Day 2 (Animal Kingdom)

We spent our first full day at Disney World at Animal Kingdom.  

We woke up early and after a quick breakfast in the room, got there right as they opened a nine.  We headed straight for our Kilimanjaro Safari FastPass.  Malcolm and Lucinda were so excited to see the animals.  Malcolm was really hoping to see zebras, and Lucinda was really hoping to see giraffes, and they saw both, along with lions, rhinos, elephants, and a lot more.

After the safari, we walked through the Pangani Forest Trail.  We saw lots of pretty birds and fish, but ended up speed walking through the second half of it to make it to our fastpass reservation for the Festival of the Lion King show.  

The show was amazing!  Matt was a bit disappointed that he wasn't chosen to make the elephant noise (and he would have been a much better choice than the adult they did choose who sounded more like a squealing pig).

After the show, we headed over to Discovery Island to check out the Tree of Life - a giant tree with animals carved into it - and see the 3-D movie "It's Tough To Be a Bug".  It was the kids' first exposure to 3-D movies, and it was great (except for the part where something popped out of the back of my seat and poked me, making it feel like I got stung and scaring the heck out of me!).

Next stop was lunch at Tusker House.  This ended up being one of our favorite meals of the trip.  The food was fantastic and the kids loved the characters.

After lunch we headed over to Asia, pausing for some family photos in front of the Tree of Life.

We stashed our stuff in a locker (which turned out to be a very wise move), and headed for the Kali River Rapids ride.  The line was long but with our Fast Passes we walked right on. They warned us we might "get a little wet."  We got SOAKED.  Completely, totally soaked.  Lucinda and Malcolm thought this was hilarious!

Lucky for us, it was a very hot day and getting soaked was just what we needed to cool off and feel refreshed.  We headed next for Dino-Land where we rode the triceratops spin three times in a row before wrapping up our Animal Kingdom day with Finding Nemo: The Musical.  The show was great.  I was so impressed throughout the week by the quality of the shows - they were really amazing.

The show ended around five and the park was closing, so we headed out and drove to Downtown Disney for a prehistoric dinner at T-Rex Cafe.  

After dinner, the kids insisted that we stop in the world's largest Disney Store, where they chose their first souvenirs.

It was a long, exhausting day, but such a fun one!