Vacation Day 26: Animal Kingdom - Kilimanjaro Safaris

We were greeted at the Animal Kingdom by Mickey Mouse this morning at opening. He was standing on the Tree of Life at the hub of the park. Minnie, Goofy and Pluto were riding around on a bus, waving as the crowd made its way in. Today we decided to follow the Animal Kingdom Touring Plan from the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. It directed us to Dinoland first, where the crowd doesn’t usually go til later, but the rides load slowly so the waits get long.

Mickey at the Tree of Life

Near the entrance to DinoLand, we ran into Eeyore first thing. There wasn’t any wait to meet him, so the kids ran up and gave him a hug. It was so nice to be in an empty area of the park! It was like having it to ourselves for the first hour or so.

Meeting Eeyore

Entering DinoLand

As we headed further into Dinoland, we ran into both Piglet and Winnie the Pooh. Again, there was zero wait, so the kids ran up to them and gave them hugs, too.

Meeting Piglet and Winnie the Pooh

The first ride we visited was Triceratop Spin. It’s kind of like the Dumbo ride, but a little more advanced. It seats 4, and has controls for both up and down and tilting forward and back. Since there was no wait, the cast member operating the ride let us stay on for a second time. That was really nice!

Triceratop Spin - TWICE!

Next, we went over to Primeval Whirl. This ride is a bit like PsychoMouse or Mullholand Madness, for those of you familiar with those rides. It’s a little individual roller coaster car that spins and follows a roller coaster track. Aiden wanted to ride, but he was WAYYY below the height requirement of 48”. He’s currently 38” tall. He had to stand underneath the dinosaur height meter to be convinced that he wasn’t tall enough (sad). But it was good he couldn’t go on. That ride really throws you around, and he would’ve been smushed! Maria, Andrew, Uncle Howie and Vavu went on, while Vavo took the kids around the midway area.

Primeval Whirl - AHHHH!

On our way through Dinoland, we ran into Goofy. Again, there was no wait, so Jeremy went up and gave him a hug. This time, Aiden wasn’t into it. He just wanted to find the next ride.

Meeting Goofy

Next, we headed to “Dinosaur”. This ride is similar to Indiana Jones in Disneyland. It has a ride vehicle that kind of looks like a Jeep, and bounces you around and makes sharp turns. Aiden almost made the height requirement for this ride. It was 40”. He stood next to the Dinosaur height meter and looked about an inch-and-a-half short. This time, there was a cast member there who saw that he was barely too little and gave him a special dinosaur trading card. He told Aiden that when he comes back to DisneyWorld next time, to show the trading card and he would be given a FastPass to go straight on. Then he told Aiden that there was a trail he could walk with Vavo to go see Dinosaur skeletons. So he was up for that! He and Jeremy went with Vavo while Maria, Andrew, Uncle Howie and Vavu rode Dinosaur. It was a good ride, but it was scary! Well, Maria was scared. Big, scary dinosaurs pop out at you from the dark. Eek!

Riding Dinosaur - that's Maria covering her eyes

After Dinosaur, we decided it was time for the kids to have fun, because they missed out on the last two rides. So we visited the “Boneyard”. This is a playground area themed around an archeological dig site. There are dino skeletons sticking out of the rocks and caution tape and “hard hat areas”. It was pretty cute. There were rope bridges, slides, caves and waterfalls. The kids had fun on the rope bridges. Drew and Maria took them in while Vavo and Vavu had a caricature drawn for Tim’s house. He’s collecting one from all the members of the family to hang in his hallway. Andrew lost his glasses on one of the rope bridges, and we had to go back through the playground looking for them. Maria found them at the base of one of the rope ladders. They looked really broken, but the flex frames had just popped open like they are supposed to instead of breaking. A cast member helped us get them down.

Entering the Boneyard

Drew's Glasses - Stuck

The kids playing on an "abandoned" jeep at the dig site

The next stop on our plan was Aiden’s big-kid ride, Kali River Rapids. He has been asking for that ride ever since the first time he went on it. He keeps telling us he wants “to ride the raft ride”. So this time we used the “baby swap” method. This allowed Andrew to wait with Jeremy while the group rode, then when we were done, Maria waited with Jeremy while Andrew took a turn riding with the group. So Aiden and Uncle Howie got to go on twice. Sweet! By the end of the second ride, Aiden was soaking wet!

Aiden - soaked. He's happier than he looks!

Drew's "I'm wet" pose

The next item on the plan was to get FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris, then eat lunch while we waited for them to become useable. So Andrew went and picked up the passes while the rest of us checked out the map to look for nearby lunch places. Turns out, there aren’t that many lunch places over by Kilimanjaro Safaris, so we went back to the restaurant where we ate the character breakfast, “Tusker House”. We arrived at around 11:15, and the restaurant didn’t open until 11:30. They wouldn’t give us a pager until 11:25, so we sat down nearby and watched the acrobat show that had just begun. It was the same guys we saw last time, and they were still really good! At 11:24, Andrew got up an hurried over to get on the list and pick up a pager, since we didn’t have priority seating arrangements. He was the first person in line! We got the first table in the whole restaurant! It was great!

The Limbo Guys

The food was just as good for lunch as it was for breakfast. There was some curry chicken with basmati rice that was really good. And there were plenty of things to choose from. Aiden kept saying that he wanted a party. This is because during the character breakfast, they brought out musical instruments and marched around the dining room. But they don’t do that during lunch. Aiden kept telling our server he wanted a party, but she didn’t know what he was talking about.

Tusker House Buffet

After lunch, it was time to use our FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Thank goodness we got them when we did. By the time we got back, all of the FastPasses had been distributed for the rest of the day, so there were none left. And the standby wait time was 40 minutes. But we had our passes, so we walked past HECKA people in line. The ride was pretty slow loading, but they got on a bunch of people at a time. Probably about 30 people or so were on each safari truck.

The sought-after Kilimanjaro FastPasses

We saw quite a few animals on the ride. We saw some rhinos, zebras, lions, cheetahs, hippos, elephants, flamingos, alligators, watusi cattle (they had huge horns), and a bunch of other birds and animals that we didn’t know what they were. It was fun bouncing around the trails and going over the creaky bridges. It’s a pretty long ride, so it’s worth the hassle of the crowds. By the end of the ride, Jeremy was asleep. He woke up at 7am this morning looking for his bunny, because he went to sleep last night without it. So by the afternoon, he was zonked out! We decided to head home and take a nap.

They nicknamed these trees the "upside-down" trees because it looks like their roots are sticking up in the air.

Alligators

Elephants

Jeremy sleeping, again.

After naps, we ate some sandwiches and went to church. Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It celebrates Mary, who from the moment she came into existence, was free from sin. http://www.fisheaters.com/customsadvent5.html
We made one minor oversight when we looked up the Mass times. Turns out the 7pm celebration was “en Espanol”. Oops! Luckily, they do all the same things as usual, just in Spanish! So we learned a few new Spanish words today!

Then we decided to go home. It was nice to be home again at a normal time. It’s been so late these days when we come home, it’s nice to just have an evening in the house. Tomorrow we will return to Epcot!

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The best part of day 26 was Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur for Drew, because Maria was scared and it was funny; Kali River Rapids for Aiden; passing by the crowded line on Kilimanjaro Safari; having DinoLand all to ourselves this morning.
The worst part of day 26 was trying to keep up in church when they were speaking Spanish, losing Drew’s glasses in the Boneyard, when it got hot in the afternoon.
What we learned on day 26 was get FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris relatively early, or you might not get any, check what language the church will be speaking in BEFORE going, lots of kids sound like Aiden – both boys and girls.
The weather on day 26 was warm, but not as bad as we thought it was going to be.
Our character sightings on day 26 included Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Eeyore, Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, woman dressed up like ivy, Baloo, King Louie.
The crowd level on day 26 was very light in the morning, heavier by the time we left around 2pm.