Florida Vacation 2011 | Day 4 | Animal Kingdom

On Tuesday we all woke up healthy!  So we headed out by 7:30 to make it to Animal Kingdom. We took the short walk to the Polynesian resort to catch their bus.  (Shades of Green buses don't start until 8:30 in the morning).

We got to the park very quickly and the workers at the ticket booth gave the boys a few buttons.  One that says "my first time at Disney World" and another that says "I'm celebrating."  They were excited.

We were one of the first groups in line so we had an upclose spot for the "rope drop" which is a little show that rides by as they open the park.  Definitely a fun way to start the day!

We rushed off to the Kilimanjaro Safari (just like everyone else waiting!) and got right on!  We saw tons of animals and the boys LOVED it. 

Isaiah says his favorites were the lions (who were laying on the rocks sleeping) and the crocodiles.

Levi pretty much loved all of them.  

We ended up getting Fast Passes to do the ride again, but ran out of time! 

Our next stop was the Festival of the Lion King show which is an amazing show filled with dancing, singing and all kinds of acrobatics!  I think this might be my favorite show at all of Disney World!  As we were walking there we ran into Pocahontas so she got to sign our autograph books first! 

Here we are waiting for the show to start.

Then we found Chip & Dale

and Minne Mouse!

These characters along with Mickey, Goofy and Pluto (I think) are in a little area together called Camp Minne Mickey.  The lines were longer than we wanted so we didn't wait to meet the others, but the man below was out singing songs to keep people entertained.  He asked Isaiah his name and where he was from and sang him a little song about himself.  It was cute!

We then ran into Thumper and Miss Bunny...

and then Leo and Stich.  Levi completely refused to get his picture taken without Mark or me there holding him, but he did go up to each character himself and have them sign his book.  They both did great with all of the characters and had fun meeting them!

There were all kinds of displays and activies set up for the kids to find and do.  They were excited about this.  If I remember right, Mark and I are behind there with them holding them up while Grandma is taking the picture.

Our next event was the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show inside the Tree of Life .

This show was our biggest mistake of the entire trip.  Levi got extremely scared in the middle of this show - it is a 3D show about bugs - it's pretty cute, but definitely not something I'd recommend unless your child is older.  Levi got really scared of the spiders.  It really surprised me, he likes bugs so much and plays with toy bugs, but it made him scared for the rest of trip for ALL shows of any kind.  Disney rates this show for everyone - but we don't agree! :)

We headed over to Expedition Everest.  Michele and I went on the ride together first.  Neither of us knew what to expect and it was AWESOME!  We were both so surprised.  We took advantage of the "Rider Swap" program offered so Mark and Michele were able to go together in the Fast Pass line and not wait at all. 

We then went Dinoland USA.  Grandma and the boys first rode the TriceraTop Spin.

I had told Isaiah about the Boneyard playland the night before and he just couldn't wait to get there.  We found it and they LOVED it.  Basically a huge playground with dinosaur bones, fossils, tunnels and mazes!  After quite awhile playing, we had to pull them away kicking and screaming!!  We could have spent all day here!!

In the afternoon we got to watch Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade. The boys love parades and they LOVED this one!

Pluto came right by where we were seating and actually came up and gave Isaiah a big hug. He was so excited!

After the parade we were going to head out of the park, it was about 30 minutes before park closing and we didn't have any other big things to do (but could have spent another 10 hours doing more!!) but we stopped to take a few pictures as the parade crowds settled down.

We went back to Downtown Disney from Animal Kingdom.  We had reservations at the T-Rex resturant.  We got downtown from the other direction as the night before so we found a few new things, including a water area.

We made it to T-Rex and it was amazing!  The dinosaurs were huge and very life like.  The rest of the resturant looked like the jungle.  It was very realistic -- and very SCARY for little Levi.  We ordered our drinks, but had to leave as he was just screaming and scared.  Poor baby! We found another resturant to eat at that was very bright and scare free!  We ate and looked around downtown a little more and then headed back to the hotel...

...to wrestle with Grandma!

After the boys were sound asleep in bed, Mark and I escaped to go to the night show at the Polynesian.  In doing some research for our trip, I ran across the water parade that runs every night on the lagoon by the resorts in the Magic Kingdom area.  So Mark and I walked to the Polynesian, we went inside to ask for a glass of water and we found a food room full of goodies.  We asked the worker if we could have a glass of water and she says, "I can give you a small bottle of water."  We said that would be great and she gave us a big expensive looking GLASS bottle of water.  We smirked at each other and said thank you.  We laughed all the way to the beach about it and of course had to take a picture.

The water parade was fun.  I'm sure it was made at least 20 years ago and hasn't been updated since, but it was fun to see and beautiful on the beach.  I could have sat there for hours!  We left shortly after the show so we could get back to check on the kids - who were still sound asleep!

We love Disney World! :)