Animal Kingdom

Four years ago when we went to Disney, a few people told me not to bother going to Animal Kingdom, because it was pretty much just a big zoo. If I could remember who those people were, I might not ever speak to them again.

I'm kidding, of course, but they were definitely wrong. This was both Kyran's and Jason's favorite park, and a close second for Gemma.

We started out the day with a safari, and saw some amazing animals...some of which we had never heard of before! (Don't ask me their names now, because I don't remember!)

Then, we headed to the new area, Pandora, which had just opened the previous Sunday. During the week, I had a couple of friends who were also at the parks who raved about the new Pandora ride, Flight of Passage. I was excited to ride it, but had no clue how amazing it would be. The whole Pandora world is beautifully done, and this ride was the best part of it.

It's hard to describe it, other than to say it's like a 4D virtual reality simulator, but that doesn't begin to do it justice. The first time I rode it was with the kids and Jackie. I had Kyran on one side and Karyssa on the other. During the whole ride, Kyran kept exclaiming, "This is awesome!! This is amazing!" Karyssa kept screaming, "Please get me off! I'm scared! Aaaaahhhhhh!" It would have been funny if I hadn't been trying to enjoy the ride myself.

Less than one year before, Karyssa had loved a fair ride that Kyran cried on the entire time. This trip was different. Kyran rode and loved everything, holding his hands up and smiling in every photo. Karyssa enjoyed the roller coasters, but wasn't crazy about simulations and some other types of rides. She did ride everything she was tall enough to at least once, though. My brave girl!

Jason, Jackie, Kyran and I were able to ride Flight of Passage together after that, while one of Jackie's friends watched Gemma, Karyssa, Elliott and Eliza. We were fortunate to have fast passes and child swap tickets so that we didn't have to wait in the 2+ hour line, but I will admit that I was a little shaky after riding it twice in a row like that.

Our next Fast Pass was for Expedition Everest, the big roller coaster there. I was a little nervous about Karyssa riding it after how she reacted on the previous ride, but she wanted to, so I wasn't going to stop her. She sat with me while Kyran sat with a young man we met waiting in line. She loved it, although you can't tell from what is now one of my favorite photos of all time!

She even got on it with Jason again immediately and this time, rode with a stranger that she met in line. Another funny photo, but not quite the same. (And look how much Kyran is loving it in both photos!)

Then we walked around for a bit and saw some more animals. The bird walk-through was very neat, and they all enjoyed bird watching and trying to identify the different birds.


After that, we headed to Dinosaur world, where they were only tall enough to ride one of the two rides, but enjoyed walking around.


We had separated from Jackie and the kids for a while, but then met back up with them to watch the live Finding Nemo show. It was very well done and the kids really enjoyed it.


Then we split up again and went to see the gorillas. There was a gorilla family with 10 gorillas, and the babies were so cute!

After that, we headed to Rafiki's Island by train, where we visited the petting zoo and met Rafiki and Doc McStuffins.

We also finally saw "the evil snake Kaa" that Gemma had been asking for all day!

That was a very education place, and it rained during the 30 minutes we were in there, and had already stopped by the time we left. 

We headed back to the main part of the park and met up with Jackie and the kids, just in time to go back to the room and get them all fed and in bed. Jason was nice enough to stay there with the kids so that Jackie and I could go attempt to find dinner (it took a while), see Pandora at night (beautiful!), and ride Flight of Passage one more time.