Yes, I'm Still Blogging about Disney World

After our first rainy day in the World, we had plans to hit up Animal Kingdom on Tuesday. AK is the only one of the four parks that I had not yet been to, so I was looking forward to checking it out. We woke up early and had breakfast in the food court because the park is only open from 9:00 to 5:00, and, after eating, we caught a bus to the park.

We had lunch reservations at the Yak & Yeti restaurant at 12:30, and we arrived at the park around 10:00, so we had a few hours to ride the attractions before indulging in yet another huge meal. The first thing we did was head to the very back of the park to go on the safari. It was a fun ride -- basically like riding a truck through a zoo. We were lucky enough to see most of the animals -- giraffes, elephants, cheetahs, lots of things that looked like variations on a cow, ostriches, rhinos -- but none of them were really doing anything exciting. After the safari, we took a train over to Rafiki's Conservation area. I was attracted to it because of the brochure's promise of a petting zoo with exotic animals. When we arrived and headed to the petting zoo, I was disappointed to see mostly the typical sheep, goats, a few pigs, and a donkey. I petted a few goats and met Lily's proud goat cousin, but we quickly washed our hands and headed back on the train to the main Animal Kingdom area.

By the time we arrived in Asia, we had a little time to browse some shops and then head to the Yak & Yeti for lunch. After a short wait, we were seated and browsed the menu. The food was tasty, and we had a delicious mango pie, recommended by Lucille, for dessert.

Following our gluttonous lunch, we walked to Camp Minnie Mickey for the Festival of the Lion King show. I can't really figure out why they have this area of the park, as it really only houses the Lion King arena and nothing else. However, the show was awesome, so maybe it just plain deserves its own portion of the park. If you ever go to Animal Kingdom, do not miss this great piece of entertainment.

After the Festival of the Lion King, we went into the Tree of Life to see "It's Tough to Be a Bug," another typical Disney 3-D show. It was cute but nothing especially exciting. Then it was time for Dino World, or whatever they call the dinosaur-themed section of the park. We missed the Finding Nemo show we were trying to see, so we ended up in Hester and Chester's amusement park area -- basically a boardwalk-like place with midway games and a dinky rollercoaster. Guy and I used our gift card to purchase tickets to play carnival games because I can never pass up a test of skill (or luck). Our favorite game was called the Comet Crash, or something like that, and it was run by a Brazilian guy that I found to be hilarious. He handed colored wiffle balls to us and instructed Guy to "just throw the comet into the galaxy." Apparently the balls were the comets and the giant board in front of us with colored cups was the "galaxy." The aim was to land the ball in one of the colored cups to win a prize. I won once or twice, and Guy also won twice. Me, being the generous person that I am, gave my prizes to a few children in the area. Guy kept his and has them proudly displayed on his bookshelf here at home. :)

We then took our loot and went to ride Dinosaur -- a journey back into the Cretaceous period. I was a little nervous when I saw the motion-sickness warnings, accompanied by an elderly man throwing up into a trash can, on our way into the ride, but it wasn't that bad. It was basically just a jerky ride past a bunch of fake dinos in the dark. Fun, but not worth waiting a long time to ride.

The last thing we did before exiting the park was saw the Finding Nemo Musical. I have since fell in love with the production and downloaded some of the songs from iTunes. I hear they sometimes air it on the Discovery channel, and it's also on YouTube, so if you like good musical productions, definitely watch it. It has great music, great puppeteering, and great visuals in general.

At the conclusion of our Animal Kingdom day, I had made reservations at Jiko, the restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so we took a bus to the hotel and put our name in to get our table. My overall impression of Jiko was that the service was super-slow, but otherwise it was a good experience. The food was different, but tasty, and they even delivered us warm towels to wash our hands with before the meal!

Guy had started to feel sick throughout the day at Animal Kingdom, so after dinner we headed back to the hotel and got to bed at a decent time. I was feeling bad that he didn't feel good, but little did I know that I'd soon catch his cold and have it become about ten times worse than what it was for him.