Disney World Trip - Animal Kingdom

On our last day in Orlando, we visited Animal Kingdom. Our flight was at 5:30pm that night and we used the Disney's Magical Express system to reserve our seats on a bus to the airport at 2:30pm. It was really convenient. We checked our suitcases in at our resort and Disney made sure they made it onto our plane. I was also able to have them hold onto my carry on so that I didn't have to lug it around all day. The whole process only took about 15 mins. I was very impressed with how efficient they were. I'm sure the line is longer on a busy day, but for us it was wonderfully simple. We headed to the park at about 8:30 am and knew we only had half the day to enjoy it. We picked Animal Kingdom for our half day because this park had a lot less things that we wanted to do.

Of course, we had to take the picture in front of the giant tree when we got there :)

We first went to see Bugs Life 3D because we knew the line would get long, and then headed straight to the safari. The safari ride is by far our favorite at this park. They drive you through an area with animals that you normally only see in the zoo. I took a lot of pictures, but these are my favorites:

This little Rino has a bird on his butt.... :)

Did you know Hippos love to cuddle?

I love Giraffes!

These monkeys look like there is a mom teaching her child... sometimes monkeys look so human!

If anyone didn't already know... I FREAKIN' LOVE ELEPHANTS!!! Ok, I'm under control again.

Two baby Elephants following mom!

This Rino loved the van in front of us. He just kept following along side it like he wanted to join the ride.

They aren't easy to see, but there is a family of lions in the rocks.

The Zebras' stripes are doing their job - I can't tell how many Zebras there are!

After the Safari we headed over to the Dinosaur part of the park. 

Just a cute pic we took while standing in line :)

So, we went on the Dinosaur ride where you're in this car and you go back in time and drive through an area with Dinosaurs and at the end the T-Rex pops out and starts chasing you. Well they take a picture right as the T-Rex pops out to try and get a picture of people screaming or making a face or whatever. I love our reactions to the T-Rex. I completely ignored it, I probably was focused on something else and didn't even notice it while LJ looks at it like "You're not so great".

We also took in a Bird Show... I know, doesn't sound that cool. But they had some birds of prey that were pretty cool. They had the hawk fly around right over the audience. I wish I had waited half a second to take this picture. The trainer that the hawk was flying to was standing right behind us so the hawk got crazy close. Those birds look pretty awesome up close.

 And of course the Eagle was the best one. :)

The big thrill ride at this park is Mount Everest. I rode it last time I was at the park and wasn't feelin' it this time. Instead we got fast passes and LJ rode it twice. 

If we look really close we can see him waving at me :) (blue shirt, second row)

For lunch we went to Yak & Yeti. It's owned by Landry's so I got 1/2 off and I heard it was good. For an appetizer we got the pot-stickers:

Then LJ got the duck and I got beef & veggies in brown sauce:

Being totally honest: I thought it was the best food we had the whole trip. It was SO good. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Animal Kingdom. It gets crowded though, so stop by in the morning and make a reservation for later that day. It's worth it!

After lunch we had just a little time left so we decided to do the Safari ride again. Well, we tried to... we had picked up fast passes before lunch, so we thought it would be pretty quick...we got there and the fast pass line rapped around the entrance. The regular line said it was an hour wait time and lots of people were complaining. I heard an employee mutter under their breath "You try moving 5,000 lbs when it doesn't want to move" Apparently there was a Rino in the road that was refusing to budge. Made me wonder if it was the same guy we saw earlier walking along side a bus. I guess he got sick of people leaving and so he formed his own blockade. :) I wonder how long it took them to get him out of the way. Not your normal amusement park ride dilemma. :)

Since we couldn't get through the Safari ride quickly we just slowly walked around enjoying the scenery as we headed to the exit. While It would have been fun to spend more time in this park, it was the right one to go to on our half day. Most of the things we didn't do involved seeing animals that are at our zoo. So we'll just go there soon. :)

I hope you enjoyed our little vaca to Orlando. I know we did! LJ has already started to say we need to go back. :)