Our first stop at the Disney parks this year was Animal Kingdom. It has been advertising newer later hours. They used to close at 6:00pm which seems early, but it was so the animals would not be so stressed. Their new hours are until 10:00pm, with an evening show related to the new Jungle Book movie. We hung out until about 8:00-8:30pm before everyone started complaining they were tired and we couldn't think of what else to do as that park is kind of weak.
We got kind of a slow start thanks to my sister doing a timeshare to get reduced prices on her Disney tickets. We had done this in the past, so we knew the routine, it was even at a timeshare place we stayed, Westgate Estates, at a reduced price for one time, with my folks, with us committed to listening to a timeshare sales pitch. We got up around 8:30am, enjoyed some coffee and some sweetbreads, then casually showered, being ready within minutes of my sister coming back and then being ready to rock and roll.
When we got to the park, the weather was awesome, to me. It looked like rain, with heavy dark clouds covering the sun, and we kept thinking about pulling out our ponchos, but it barely drizzled. My dad kept bringing up the Bug's Life show under the big Tree of Life, so we headed in that direction. It was a short five minute wait and we were in. This was followed by walking into the "Asia" part of the park. We went through the bat area but for the second time in two years, the bats were not there. We then saw a tiger display with one tiger. They keep the tigers isolated except when they are in heat. We then walked through a bird sanctuary, and it had a bunch of birds, but nobody really cares about birds. After this, my sister wanted to see the Nemo show which she had not seen in other years.
We were all a little disappointed or tired, because all of us fell asleep throughout that particular show. Boy managed to get us Fast Pass tickets to the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride around 4:00pm. We then ate near the Dinosaur area. Kind of ridiculous, over $13 bucks for a burger, but oh well, we are on vacation. By the time we finished eating, it was about time to make the walk across the park to the Africa section for the Safari ride. It took a while to get across the park, specially with dad's bad hip. It was totally worth the walk, it had started drizzling by the time we were under the roof system to the ride, and it was a full downpour by the time we jumped in the safari buggies. We saw all the animals in the savanna, the lady explaining that most animals get more active when it rains as they are cooler.
We headed back to Dino area, stopping along the way for pictures with Mickey and Minnie, and other characters. Right before we all said goodbye, we all decided one more ride and we jumped on the Dino ride buried deep in the back of the park. It was very intense, but not scary as my sister said. We did buy a picture for this ride, we will get it ordered online.
We had already decided on eating at Red Lobster when my sister suggested the Rainforest Café. It was the worst part of the day. Noisy, sub par food, but it fed us and kept us going all the way home.
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