Disney 2013: Day 3 – Animal Kingdom

Ok, here’s where the Disney part of our trip really starts. I made use of Easy WDW while planning this trip and planned each of our Disney days on days said to be less crowded compared to the rest of the week. I checked out a couple of sites for this info and Easy WDW got the nod because it was free and because the explanations for their recommendations seemed more reasonable than the other sites.

Since this was our first full day in the park, we had business to take care of before we could start enjoying the park. Jenne picked up her Guest Assistance Card (which she never had to use, all of the cast members were very accommodating when it came to stairs) and upon entering the park, I picked up our PhotoPass+ lanyard. We were now ready to go.

Since our FastPass for the Kilimanjaro Safari wasn’t until 9:30, we took our time walking through the park to get there. We discovered something awesome along the way: Wilderness Explorers! The big thing at Disney lately has been adding extra value to the park through games and experiences tailor-made for kids. Once you sign up to be a Wilderness Explorer, you get a book that you take with you around the park. Once you complete activities at stations located all over the park, you get a badge sticker for your book. Cass had a blast learning new things as we explored the park. This picture here is from the first stop that we made right in front of the flamingo habitat. We probably made 15 – 20 stops through the course of the day and each stop had new knowledge to share. The cast members that we encountered at these locations were all extremely friendly and enthusiastic. This was a great addition to Animal Kingdom and something else for our list of new experiences.

The Kilimanjaro Safari is always awesome and I’ve got a ton of pictures from our trip. This one is probably the best of the bunch though: baby giraffes! We had a great safari with a close-up view of the baby giraffes, rhinos blocking our path which extended our trip, and the best view of the male lion that I’ve ever seen. You can click on the giraffe picture to see a larger version and those of you who know me on Facebook can see all of my pictures there.

We didn’t have another FastPass until 11:30 so we took a stroll along the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail which had even more Wilderness Explorer badges to earn. From there, we made our way towards Asia collecting more badges as we went. Cassidy made a last minute decision to join me on Expedition: Everest which started a week where she was mostly brave, but still had some moments where she didn’t want to go on rides. She was a lot more excited about the ride this time than she was last time which was awesome. She just wanted to close her eyes for the Yeti part. That’s no big deal because I want to close my eyes at that point also because I’m ashamed that Disney has left that neglected, broken Yeti in that state for so long. There’s no way it is ever getting fixed.

From Everest, we made our way to Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama. If you ever visit a Disney message board, you’ll see nothing but hate for this section of the park, but I kind of like it. I can’t wait until Avatar-land is completed so that everyone can direct their hatred there instead. We played a quick game, rode TriceraTop Spin, and browsed in the shop until 12:30 came around which meant it was time to ride DINOSAUR. This is one of my favorite rides in the park and this is the best that it has looked in years. Some effects were working that I hadn’t see in years. I hate that you miss the Bill Nye stuff in the entry hall and the beginning of the preshow when the ride isn’t busy, but on the other hand, the ride wasn’t busy. I always make sure that I point out all of the little details to Cass that everyone else misses as they chat away during the preshow or are too busy rushing to the ride. One of my favorite things about this ride of the “security camera” footage of the dinosaur wandering through the halls after the ride, but the majority of the people just blow past that area to get to the next attraction. Then they complain that Animal Kingdom is just a half-day park. #You’reNotDoingItRight

The rain started right around the time that we got out of DINOSAUR. It was a little heavy at times, but it never got us down. You can’t take a trip to Florida if the rain bothers you too much or else you’re going to be miserable. Heck, I didn’t even use a poncho most of the time. The only bummer for me is that I don’t like taking my camera out in the rain so that led to a bit of a lack of pictures in the middle of the day.

Seeing that there was a Wilderness Explorer badge to be had in The Boneyard, we made our way there which was another first for me. The rain kept Cass from playing around in there, but she did get her badge. Getting through there quickly gave us time to watch It’s Tough to be a Bug! before lunch. Starting a trend of things going our way and arriving places just in time, we arrived at Yak and Yeti one minute before our reservation time.

Yak and Yeti was another first time experience for all of us and we were glad that we tried it out. The food was great and the theming of the restaurant was nice. I had a yummy rack of ribs. Our waiter was great, but that was the case for all of our dining experiences. Dessert was nice, but what was even better was the pressed penny machine in the lobby of the restaurant. I think I added around 50 new pressed pennies to my collection which isn’t bad at all.

Our one disappointment for the day came after lunch. We had planned on heading back to meet Russell and Dug, but their meet and greet time ended around noon. We had been in the line earlier in the day, but they were going on an extended break while we were just at the end of the line and ran out of time to wait. That’ll just be the top thing on our list of new things to do on our next trip.

The rain stopped right after we finished lunch and we made our way back to Asia for the Maharajah Jungle Trek. This wasn’t a first for Cassidy, but since we didn’t get a chance to do it last trip, it wasn’t really something that she remembered. The bats are great and the komodo dragon is awesome, but the best things about the Jungle Trek are the tigers. There were a bunch of Wilderness Explorer badges to be earned all along the trail which made Cass very happy.

Between this being a slow day for Animal Kingdom and the bad weather driving people people away, there were barely any people waiting along the parade route. The fact that the parade was delayed might have had something to do with that as well. We easily made our way along the parade route back to Africa so that we could visit Rafiki’s Conservation Station. We weren’t going to have much time there, but Cass wanted Rafiki to sign her autograph book and there were 5 badges to be collected there. We had to rush a bit once we got off of the Conservation Station train, but we got to the Finding Nemo theater right at 5 for the final show of the night. We sat down right as the show was starting in some conveniently located seats that were right on the entrance level.

Our plan for the evening was a trip to Downtown Disney. This place was packed all week. It felt more crowded than the parks and I don’t remember it ever being this crowded. We browsed through World of Disney and got both Jenne and Cass set up for pin trading. Jenne and Cass also got their themed Mickey ears: Evil Queen for Jenne and Ariel for Cassidy. I got a Roger Rabbit shirt and some pins.

When hunger approached, we decided to try out T-Rex which was another new experience. For those of you who have been to Rainforest Cafe, this is the same thing, but with dinosaurs instead of rainforest critters. We put our name in and waited for 45 minutes or so. Cass and I took a stroll over to the Lego store and checked out the cool Lego sculptures. Once they call your name, you just go and wait somewhere else. After another 15 minutes or so, we finally were seated. This was honestly the only thing that I really disliked throughout our whole trip. The food is overpriced, the place is way too loud, it just wasn’t a relaxing experience at all.

Since the majority of our time this evening was spent waiting at and then eating at T-Rex, we didn’t get to finish all of Downtown Disney. We did get to check out more of the shops, but not strolling through the Art of Disney store was painful. It’s probably good that the shops closed when they did because we wouldn’t have wanted to stay out any longer. We were getting to bed later than we probably should have anyway. That’s it for day 3!