Disney World Day 9: Animal Kingdom

It was finally our day to visit Animal kingdom. I was way more excited for this than everyone else. I had wanted to visit since it opened.
Abi was excited because I had seen pictures of Daisy Duck in safari clothes here and had told Abi that I thought we would finally find her here.
I like the characters in safari clothes....

We got some great Photopass pictures today. I kept asking each photographer if they did the Simba magic shot and finally found one that did...

Another Tink shot....

Abi in front of Expedition Everest...

they got some shots of us in front of the Christmas tree before we went in...

The Christmas tree was pretty cool...

We made it for rope drop but missed the show. We got right in through the gates and headed back through Africa...

I was excited to ride the Safari! You get in these big trucks and drive around through the animals. It reminded me a lot of riding the train around at Wild Animal Park in California except you are in a truck instead and the animals are much closer to you. They do their best to make it feel like a real safari.
First we saw some Hippos...

This almost made me cry because I'm such a sap but it was by far one of my favorite moments of the trip. This little baby elephant suddenly realized that its mommy had gotten too far away from it and took off running after her. I had never seen a baby elephant running in person and it was just so cute!!

Cheetah!

It's hard to see the lions but they are hanging out on the big rocks...

ostrich eggs...

white rhinos...

When we got off the safari we explored the trails throughout 'Africa' and 'Asia'.

We took a little break to use some snack credits to get pretzels. I had heard about the jalapeno cheese pretzel and it didn't disappoint. It was so good!

We got a regular one for the girls. It was actually really nice to have a warm snack as it was still pretty cold at this point.

The famous Tree of Life...

Abi really had fun playing on some drums in Africa...

A closer look at the Tree of Life...

Some Asian ruins...

After Asia we went to the Finding Nemo musical. It was pretty amazing and Maddy just loved it. She loves music so much and every time we were in a show that had music she would stand up on my lap and jump up and down and sway while waving her arms around. It was really cute.
After the show, my parents took Abi and Maddy over to the Boneyard ( a big play area and digging area) in the Dinoland area so that Doug and I could go ride Expedition Everest.

It was really fun. There were scary parts of it going through the mountain in complete darkness and then you get up to this point where the tracks end...

You stop there for a minute and then go back through the mountain backwards, again some parts in the dark. Sometimes you get a glimpse of the Yeti!
I was going to ride again with my mom if I thought she would like it but I didn't think she would because of the dark... she didn't like Space Mountain at Disneyland for that reason so I'm pretty sure this would have been the same.
Doug and I both enjoyed it a lot though.
After the ride we met back up with the girls and my parents.
Abi was having a great time digging.

We also ran into my Uncle Whitney (my mom's brother) and his family while we were walking down the path. We knew they were going to be in Florida at the same time but didn't think we would see them. We chatted for a minute and then headed to lunch.
We went to Restaurantasaurus. Abi got the kids meal with the hot dog that comes in a bucket with a shovel. I got the chicken strips and fries and chocolate mousse.

Doug got the burger with cheesecake. It was all pretty good but pretty basic.

Next up was the ride Dinosaur. I had heard that this ride terrifies children, even kids that enjoy scarier rides, so I wasn't planning on taking Abi even though she was tall enough. Doug and I went on first while my parents stayed with the girls.

We liked it although it bounces around a LOT. It reminded me a lot of the Indiana Jones ride at disneyland (although not as cool) because you are in a truck type of car that bounces around the track while you are looking for a certain type of dinosaur. Other meaner dinos come out at you. They even take your picture during this one because most people cry or scream I guess. I didn't think it was scary but I thought it would be for Abi. Those dinos were really loud.
I told my mom that I thought she would like it so we were ready to go on again when Abi said she wanted to go. I told her it was her decision but explained that it was kind of scary and really loud. She still wanted to go. So, in we went. It was walk on again.
Abi liked it!
She was so proud of herself for not getting scared and enjoying herself that I had to take a picture of her outside the ride.

Next we went over to the Tree of Life to see the It's tough to be a bug show. I had to get a picture of Jane Goodalls chimp...

Here is Abi in her 3D bug glasses...

My mom and I had loved this show at California Adventure so I thought Abi would too. She didn't. It scared her! She ended up kneeling on the floor covering her ears.
When it was over we made our way over to Camp Minnie Mickey to find Daisy Duck. We saw the character trails for Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto but not Daisy so we stopped to ask someone and found out she is only out for a few hours a day and had already left.
Abi was disapointed but we were able to find Thumper and Bunny...

Then we turned around and saw Pocahontas!!

Pocahontas asked her what kind of berries she used to make her coat pink.
Abi had so much fun meeting her. Then she saw a girl with pins so she quickly got her lanyard out to trade a pin.

They have themed Christmas trees throughout the whole park. They are so cute.

There were also some cute little fisherman...

We went to the Lion King Festival show and loved it as well. Again, Maddy was so excited about it.
After the show, we ran back over to Dinoland because we had forgot to ride the Triceratop Spin while we were over there.
Abi loved it so much!

After this it was time to go catch our bus to the Wilderness Lodge.

Up next: Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe.