Animal Kingdom

Thursday was Animal Kingdom day. As usual, we arrived super early, and we were in front of the biggest crowds. That was great - I was able to send the Evil Twin and Buddy on Expedition Everest on stand by (first thing in the morning, there is almost no wait), and while they did that, I went and got 4 fast passes for the ride.

When they returned, Buddy said he didn't want to ride that one again, but to give him some time to think, we went around to other attractions.

We saw DiVine:



We went on Kilimanjaro Safari and saw many unusual animals, like rhinos, giraffes and elephants:



This attraction is on a large "jeep" type vehicle (with a driver/guide), so you are almost constantly in motion. It's hard to get pictures of everything - especially if they are on the other side of the vehicle. I did the best I could for photos with the motion and everything.

Buddy decided he did not want to go back on Expedition Everest again, so we went back to the attraction entrance and found a family of four going on and I gave the fast passes away to them. They were very happy and that was my good deed for the day!

Animal Kingdom was the one park we've visited that seemed least crowded and temperature wise, not as hot. It's because there are many trees and other landscaping that provide a nice shade through most of the park.

Still, AK is a smaller park and we quickly rode all the rides and saw all the sights we wanted to, so we were able to make it back to our resort by about 1:30 (a first for us - taking a break - it just never seemed to work out on other days). I took a shower and by about 4:15 we headed back out, but this time to Epcot where we had a dinner reservation at the Coral Reef restaurant.

We arrived about 30 minutes before our scheduled time, but I went ahead and signed in anyway. Imagine my surprise when I saw the name tag of the hostess. It had her name on it (of course, duh! LOL), but underneath that, it said "Marshall University". I said, "Marshall University from Huntington, WV?" (as if there's another Marshall) and she said, "Yes". I was so excited "That's where I graduated, too!" Then, we high-fived and chatted about where we were from in the state. I think she might have pulled some strings on seating because we were only there about 10 minutes before our table was ready.

The Coral Reef restaurant is a seafood/upscale dining experience. You eat at tables in front of a large aquarium with all kinds of fish and sea life swimming by. We saw sharks, man-o-rays and schools of little fish. Plus, we saw teams of human divers in the tank while we were eating. They would swim past the glass and wave at the diners! It was so fun. The food was excellent as well.

This morning, the family is sleeping in a bit. We're going back to the Magic Kingdom for a while, then we're headed to Downtown Disney. We'll leave from there to go to Wilderness Lodge, where we have dinner reservations at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Then, we'll go back to Downtown Disney and take the ferry boat to our resort.

I'm off to get ready for the morning. Of course, I woke up way before the alarm, cause that's how I roll. :-)