The Animal Kingdom was really cool. It was part zoo, part rides, part shops, and part exploring. The kids had a great time with the Wilderness Explorer Areas (from UP). The park was full of awesome animals and plants from all around the world! The front area of the park is modeled after a town in Africa (Harambe) and it is really cool. They have a group of African dancers that put on a little show and invite people up to dance with them! My parents and Kian and Ella all danced, but I was sweaty enough as it was! So, I just took pictures. It was so hot that day, I think the hottest one we had while we were there! We had to take lots of water breaks and just sit in the shade! After resting a bit, we went to go on the safari ride. It's really cool what they have set up for the animals. The safari area really does look like a safari. The trees they have planted there and the scenery really matches what an African Safari looks like. I bet it helps the animals feel more at home and in their element. Our tour guide told us that a lot of the animals would be cooling off in the shade and might be harder for us to spot, but we still saw a good amount of animals. The cool thing is you can get fairly close to them, because you are riding in a safari-type truck that has open windows. We saw some giraffes pretty close up and we saw the sweetest little baby giraffe! After the safari, we went to explore some other parts of the park. We went on a train to see the animal reservation and nature area. That's where they had most of the Wilderness Explorers activity areas set up. Kian and Ella had a good time doing those and getting stickers for each one they completed. We got picked to be a special family and got to go back into the laboratories and see how they determine if the animals are pregnant! It was actually really interesting and we were the only family of the day that go to do it! The scientist that gave us the tour went to CSU! We also got a special pin that if you're a Disney pin collector, not many have! We then walked around and learned about how to create habitats and homes for the animals around us, and then went over to the petting zoo area. They had super cute goats and even a chubby pig! The kids had a fun time doing that, and so did I. I'm pretty sure I love animals more than people. Haha. Next, we went over to Camp Minnie/ Mickey and watched the Lion King show! The singers and dancers were great and it was a cool show! We then got some lunch and sat down for a bit! Our feet were killing! After a little break, we went to the India and Asia areas of the park where they had some cool things to check out! In the India area they had a walking tour that was super cool. There were tigers, apes, and other animals to check out. The cool thing about this place was the scenery. They modeled it and decorated it so it really looked like India. And the tiger we saw was so cool, it kept walking around by us and checking us out. He probably wanted to eat us. Either way, it was cool. The plants that they had were actual plants from India and Asia. Everything was authentic in this park! I found some little, brown, berry-looking type things that I broke open, and when I did I found out it was some type of spice! I'm pretty sure it was Nutmeg or something close to it. It was such a strong smell! We then headed over to a cool dinosaur area that they had! There was this super cool jungle gym and playground that was massive! The kids really had fun there! We finished out our day checking out the Asia area just as it started to rain! We still went on this really fun river rafting ride though! We weren't about to miss out on that! After that, we decided to call it a day, relax at the hotel, and get some dinner. We had SO much fun at the Animal Kingdom!
In Harambe
The safari area!
WE!
The tree!
Dad and the kiddos
Ella in front of the Tree of Life Garden
Me, Dad, Kian, and Ella at the very front of the park
Being goofy
A cute marketplace area at Harambe!
Dad doing some African dancing!
Ella showing her skills!
Gorgeous view with the Everest ride in the back (we almost rode it). Ha
Mom, Dad, Ella, and Kian (can't really see him) dancing!
The giraffes!
The sweet little baby giraffe was so cute!
The Lion King show
Our backstage pass!
Some more dancing!
The African Dancers and musicians
So much dancing!
