Animal Kingdom and Day Two at Disney

On our final full day in Orlando, my husband and I spent six hours at Animal Kingdom and the next eight hours back at the Magic Kingdom. Yes, my friends, that equals FOURTEEN hours straight of theme park madness.

We also went to Animal Kingdom in 2000 and 2006 and really enjoyed it... they've done a great job with this park. My husband especially likes the "Expedition Everest" rollercoaster that is fairly new. I dig it because I totally believe in Bigfoot (also known as the Yeti) and they have a pretty lifelike one that jumps out at you. Some crazy dude videotaped the entire ride from his front-row seat, if you're interested... the parts that are all dark are where the ride is actually going backward. It is crazy.

Other attractions I would recommend at Animal Kingdom are:
- DINOSAUR
Please do yourself and everyone around you a favor and do NOT take any small kids on this ride. Every time I've gone on it, someone ignores all of the signs which state that it's really scary for little children, and some poor kid ends up hyperventilating. The ride is intense, but it totally rocks. You can see a short clip of it here.
- It's Tough to Be a Bug
This is another one of those interactive 3-D movies. It also scares the bejeezus out of little kids... seriously, people bail out of that theater left and right. Maybe it has something to do with the thousands of fake spiders that drop from the sky? Anyway, I still like it.
- The Finding Nemo musical.
This one is new and very well done.
- The Safari
They do a very good job with simulating the experience while also throwing in some education about poachers.

Once over at Disney, we went on just about every ride and attraction there was... including the Liberty Belle Steamboat (I have been to Disney countless times and have NEVER gone on this) and the Hall of Presidents?!?! I was worried that the park would be more crowded than it was when I had gone on Thursday, but it was actually much less packed. Look, no line for Pirates of the Caribbean!



Yes, I did run around all day wearing the Pirate Mickey Ears that my friend Nerdy P got me. I was not the only one there with such accessories. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I also got a skull and crossbones ring, which you can see in this picture of me and my Mickey Waffle.


Do you have a new respect for how patient my husband must be to put up with me?

At 10 PM they have a fireworks show, and we got a primo seat on this bench right on the bridge in front of Cinderella's Castle. The fireworks are great, but the best part is at the very beginning. There's this chick who is all lit up to look like Tinkerbell, and she zooms down this invisible wire from the top of the castle over to the roof of a building across the pond... it is really cool.

It was certainly a long day, but we had a lot of fun. I wanted to end my write-ups on Orlando by clarifying something from my post about Islands of Adventure. I do think that park is overall the best for attention to detail throughout its grounds and I think it has some of the coolest rides. But the Magic Kingdom will always be my favorite... even when the Harry Potter Wizarding World is built a few years from now over at IOA. You just can't beat the original Disney park, what can I say? Don't mess with Mickey!

- e