Day 6 - Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom

So, Day 6 was kind of a make-up day.  We didn't have a lot of plans so we decided that we wanted to try to get some daytime activity over at Animal Kingdom (there were a couple rides we missed and we wanted to see some more animals), followed by another nightly excursion to Magic Kingdom (which, as already described, was Jaime's favorite because of it's Disneyland-like feel).
When we first got into the park we met DiVine.  She was so.....weird.

Anyway...there are 2 cool rides at Animal Kingdom and we wanted to make sure we did them both this day.  First was the Dinosaur ride.  Dinosaur was very cool.  They premise is kind of Jurassic Parkish except you go back in time right before the meteor shower that destroyed all the dinosaurs.  The effects are cool and the animatronics on the dinosaurs once you go back in time are top notch.  The only problem with this is that Harris was so scared!  The ride does a very good job of making you feel like you are being chased by a dinosaur and near the end he jumps out to eat you.  This is when they snap the pic;

My job was to protect Harris (it was Little Buddy's job as well)...Jaime says she wasn't clutching her heart but was just about to check her phone (yes, she keeps it in her shirt).  Anyway, it was a great ride.

We also decided to try the Safari ride again (and we hoped that it wouldn't take a 90 minute wait this time!).  The wait was much shorter and we got some good pics;

Not a lot of narration really needed here...these are pictures of animals we saw whilst on the Safari ride.

We also made time to do cool ride #2, Expedition Everest.  No pics this time but it could be my favorite Disney ride...

We walked around, saw some animals, got some food and realized that we were FREEZING COLD!  So we decided to head back to the resort, put on everything we brought and head over to Magic Kingdom.

 On the way out we saw this on a t-shirt and bought it for Harris (as well as on a beach towel).


Not really much to report on for Magic Kingdom this night, it was pretty much more of the same.  We did Pooh Bear again and a couple other rides but our evening was really dominated by the desire to stay warm which was surprisingly hard to do.

 The kids playing in the interactive line for Winnie the Pooh.

 Cute pic on the ride...can you tell that Harris is cold?

 Of course we had to do Philharmagic again...Harris really liked it (but you can't tell from this photo)


So, funny story to close out here.  I started to notice a funny trend on the trip.  It seemed that in some pictures, Liv had seemed a bit off during my first effort to snap the photo and I would have to tell her, "No", and then retake.  The below is a good example from this night of what we began to call "two take" Liv...

 Real picture, she wasn't trying to make this face!

The retake version.

Another great day!

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom

On Day 2 we planned to go to the Animal Kingdom in the morning and then had a dessert party and reserved seats for the firework show at Magic Kingdom.

Jaime wanted to take pictures in front of all the main icons of the different parks.  The one for Animal Kingdom is this very cool tree.

As part of the dining plan we were on we got to do 1 sit down meal per day.  This is different for us because we usually prefer to eat quickly and then get back to doing rides or tracking down characters.  It took some getting used to for us to spend a leisurely 90 minutes for these sit down meals but we definitely grew to appreciate the expertise of the Disney chefs.  In Animal Kingdom we ate at the Yak and Yeti in the Asia section.  Great oriental themed food here.

There were a number of attractions at Animal Kingdom that we wanted to do but our time was limited as we were still getting used to the east coast time and didn't get into the park until lunch time.  Once lunch was done we decided to do the Safari.  Jaime and the kids are big animal lovers and we thought this would be cool.  The park was pretty busy and wait times were long.  We approached the Safari and it said there was only a 45 minute wait.  Great, right?  Well, the line went beyond the entrance to the ride and once we finally got to said entrance the wait time had changed to 60 minutes (it is measured from the ride entrance to the point you get on the ride itself).  That was concerning but we were committed.  We waited, and waited, and waited...well, you get the idea.  All told, we waited about 90 minutes for the ride but it felt like eternity.  Jaime and I noticed for the first time (and continued to notice throughout the trip) that Disney World does a much worse job of line management than Disneyland.  There were no cast members around to explain why we were still in the middle of the line after 60 minutes, there was no ambient music, there was visible litter in places.  Picky, I know, but the bar is set pretty high by Disneyland.  So, we finally got on the ride and it was fun.  Here are some pics:

 Open air vehicle goodness!

 Rhino!

 Great scenery.

 Hippos in the water!

 My wife is so pretty!

 I thought I did a good job of capturing the beauty of the Safari with this picture.

 Jaime would probably take the time to research what animal this is...

 Elephants.

They call this the upside down tree.  (because the branches look like roots, I guess)  

A cheetah. 

A lioness.  There was a lion too, but we could only get a blurry picture of him.

Because we weren't quite sick of waiting we also went to the Expedition Everest ride.  Animals are great and all but I would much rather do a roller coaster and Expedition Everest did not disappoint!  There is some great vertical ascension followed by what you think is the big drop but once you get there you find that the track has been broken by the mysterious Yeti and then...YOU START TO GO BACKWARDS!  Yip, you then do a number of hills and turns while backwards, it was awesome!  So, as you can tell, I really enjoyed this ride.  Here are a couple pics:

The kids standing in front of Everest.  It wasn't as cold in the Himalayas as I thought it would be... 

Harris and I on the ride.  You can't see it but Harris has his stuffed Triceratops, Little Buddy, hidden with him.  Little Buddy's job was to frighten the Yeti away.  It was the only way we could convince Harris to go on the ride... :)

So, to finish up our day we had reserved seating and a dessert party for the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom, Wishes.  The dessert was incredible and the fireworks were beautiful.  The evening is best described pictorially...

 Yum!

 We had difficulties with our new camera and taking night pictures (it's especially aggravating since we bought the camera specifically to take good nighttime pictures).  Anyway, this is us in front of the castle at night.

                          

 The castle really is a sight to see when it's all decorated for Christmas.

 I like this picture...

 So, there you have it.  Day 2 was another great day.  Chet is out, peace!