Day 2 - Animal Kingdom

From what I had read in my unofficial guide book and from researching online, I was under the impression that most people are able to see and do everything at Animal Kingdom in one day. Easily. And that the lines are usually very short in the late afternoon as all those folks who had been there when the park opened have already left for the day. Rich and I felt as if we had wasted some time on Day 1 just trying to figure out exactly what to do so I sat down that night and compiled a list of things that we should do at Animal Kingdom along with other things that would be interesting if we had extra time. (Extra time! HA!!)

Here's a summary of we were able to do and see at Animal Kingdom:

1. Watched the Festival of the Lion King show
   


2. Met Minnie Mouse
   


3. Met Daisy Duck and Goofy
   


4. Met Chip and Dale
   


5. Met Thumper and Miss Bunny
   


6. Rode the Kilimanjaro Safari
   


7. Watched the afternoon parade
   


8. Played at the Boneyard playground
   


9. Rode the Ticera Top Spin ride

We arrived at Animal Kingdom at our usual time of after 10:00 and I honestly could not believe all of the people swarming into the park at that time. From my research, I knew that there were characters at Camp Minnie-Mickey and since the girls really enjoyed and kept talking about meeting characters, we made that our first stop. Again, it was extremely slow going moving through the crowded walkways with two strollers, especially when we missed the turn for Camp Minnie-Mickey and had to back track.

The Festival of the Lion King as on our hit list and as we entered the Camp Minnie-Mickey area, I noticed that the next show was starting in less than half an hour. We decided to do this first as it is difficult to fit a scheduled show into our unscheduled schedule. (Does that make any sense?) While this was an amazing show and held the girls' attention, I don't think they enjoyed it as much as the Beauty and the Beast show.

Of course, we made another wrong turn after we left the theater and ended up leaving Camp Minnie-Mickey instead of locating the character meet and greets. More wasted time. You'll see a big difference in the photos for today in that the girls were not as shy.

(There was some serious lighting issues going on here. My kids obviously don't have red hair.)

Oh, here's the guide for today for identifying the girls:

Allie - Purple sundress

Anna - Pink top

Emily - Yellow top

I love how Goofy is holding out his arms for a hug in this one. Yeah, not gonna happen, Goofy.

The line for Mickey was a bit long and since the girls had already met him twice the day before, we didn't even tell them that it was an option. Chip and Dale (or Chip and Dell, according to Allie) were right outside of Daisy's and Goofy's area. So we met them again.

As we were waiting in line to met Chip and Dale, Emily pointed behind us to the other side of the walkway and yelled out, "Bunnies!" They wanted to met the bunnies even though they had no idea who they were. Because the line was fairly short, the bunnies spent some extra time with the girls.

Turns out that the bunnies are Thumper and Miss Bunny.

We lost some time for bathroom breaks, cathing Anna and then lunch. After lunch, we headed over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. More bathroom breaks. Luckily for us, there was only about a 10 minute wait for that ride. I think Disney did a great job with the safari and the animals. It held the girls' attention but again, wasn't something that they talked about as a favorite.

After the safari, we decided to head over to Dinoland but the walkways were almost impassable. This became our first unpleasant parade experience. Now, I understand why they do it but it can be frustrating for some visitors. In preparing for the parade, the employees set up ropes along the parade route to keep people from spilling over into the streets. If you are trying to walk down the sidewalk, which is roped off as a viewing area, with two strollers (one being a double), you will encounter clumps of people lining up for the parade along with people trying to walk in the opposite direction. We tried to walk in the street for as long as possible but at a certain point before the parade, employees completely restrict that access.

We hadn't planned to view this parade because I thought we would take time out during one of our days at Magic Kingdom to see a parade. You have to remember that viewing a parade also consists of the time you sit before the parade waiting for it to begin - some people stake out their spots a half hour before the parade begins. Well, the girls ended up LOVING the parade. It was very entertaining for them and they especially enjoyed seeing all of the characters.

We finally made our way over to Dinoland after the parade. More time was eaten up by bathroom breaks and cathing Anna. The park was scheduled to close at 5:00 and it was getting a bit late at this point. We had been promising the girls some playground time but had yet to come across one so we took some time out to visit the Boneyard play area. We didn't venture far at all. The girls were actually content to up and down this slide 50 times.

Our last adventure of the day was the Tricera Top Spin, which had a wait time of 5 minutes. Think of dinosaurs instead of Dumbo - that's the ride. The girls enjoyed it and that's what really matters.

(I made a mental note to add something in here and now I can't remember what that was. Don't you hate when that happens?)

~Coming up next - Magic Kingdom~