Disney Parks: Animal Kingdom

On the third day of Disney, my true love gave to me...

A visit to Disney's Animal Kingdom! (sorry)

This was without a doubt the best time we've ever had at DAK. That had a lot to do with the fact that we didn't have sweat dripping off of our faces the whole time we were there. The park is beautiful, and when keeping the beads of perspiration from running into your eyes is not the only thing you can think of, it's much easier to appreciate that fact.

There isn't a lot to do at this park when you stop and think about it. But there are a few really high quality attractions here. We rode Dinosaur! twice; it was virtually a walk-on attraction this time. I saw it suggested on Futureprobe that many of the effects have been "turned off" and this ride is not what it used to be. It may be a case of not knowing what we're missing, or it might just be a case of when you only invest 10 minutes in getting on the ride, the ride seems better to you, but whatever it is, we enjoyed the ride this time. More than other times.

Expedition: Everest I rode twice, and my boys did it two more times. They rode standby once (the line was only about 15 minutes late in the day) and since my wife didn't ride at all they used her extra Fastpasses another time. They loved it. My younger son declared it to be his "favorite ride in the world". (We had one "favorite ride in the world" each day of our vacation, except Friday.)

We also did the standby line for Kilamanjaro Safaris, and that seemed to move relatively quickly. Saw a lot of animals out, but just caught a glimpse of the lions. We did see the hippos and the elephants, however. This is always a fun ride.

I wanted to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek but my wife preferred to go see the Festival of the Lion King. So we did the latter, and I have to admit that I enjoyed it. It was a well choreographed and well performed show, and I'd go see it again. The boys also rode the Primeval Whirl after we did Dinosaur. They liked it; they got put in a car with another boy a little older than them, and they always like that.

(Is that Chester and Hester's Dinorama cheap? Well, yeah...but I understand that it's the "story" that goes with the land. I like most Disney fans wish they would have come up with something more elegant or more interesting. But I'm not going to let it stand in the way of the kids' or our enjoyment...)

We had lunch at the Yak and Yeti, and you can see my photos and comments on that lunch in a previous post. We left the park in order to get back to the hotel in time for our reservation, but after stopping to do some shopping (I got a book by Jeff Kurtti and Bruce Gordon!) we were late anyway. Fortunately they were still able to accommodate us and we got a nice dinner after all.

The Animal Kingdom park is usually a shorter day for us but this time it ended up being a full day project. I think it was less crowded than usual due to the fact that it was Thanksgiving Day, but when we got there it sure looked packed.

One more day to go in the World...

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