2013 Disney World Trip Report: Day 2, Part 1

Rise and shine!





Can I wake up every morning with this view? Please???

Animal Kingdom

We headed to Animal Kingdom in the morning. We got there a little after rope drop. We had to get there early because I had made all of our FP+ reservations for Epcot that afternoon. I really think that's the best way to handle park hopping with FP+ - go early to your first park and take advantage of low crowds, and use your FP+ options for your second park. We headed straight to Expedition Everest.





And then did it immediately again while there was still a 5 minute wait.

For some reason, I luck out with a front seat to EE almost every trip.



The views from the top of Expedition Everest are my favorite!









Crowds had been piling in, as there was already a half hour wait for the safari. We grabbed some fruit from the stand outside before getting in line. We had planned to go to breakfast at Rainforest Café after the safari, but we didn't get finished until 11:00 AM and figured that they had already begun serving lunch.









And then this guy got really close!



Really, really close!!!



Here's the new giraffe baby -



The new route doesn't seem to include as much elephant time as it did in the past.





After the safari, we ate lunch at Pizzafari. We just beat the lunch crowd. We were going to go to Festival of the Lion King afterwards, but just missed it, and decided to go back to the resort and were greeted by another animal...

Day 1 - Expedition Everest (again!)

After Dinosaur, we headed back to Expedition Everest to use our FastPasses.






You can kind of see the Yeti... I haven't exactly learned how to time my camera just right for this photo, yet. Lack of flash and weird lighting makes it difficult.

Day 1 - Dinoland USA

After Festival of the Lion King, we headed over to Dinoland USA to ride Primeval Whirl. The stand-by wait was only 20 minutes, I believe. However, the queue was very hot, and our lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with us.


I amused myself in line by taking photos of myself in the mirror.



Primeval Whirl is your basic Cat-and-Mouse rollercoaster, except the cars spin. This part of Dinoland - Chester and Hester's DinoRAMA, was actually designed to look tacky. A lot of Disney-lovers do not appreciate the tacky design and believe that it conflicts with the rest of Animal Kingdom. I kind of like it, actually.

When loading, the CM stepped on Rachel's foot, and she let out an angry, "OWWWW!"



After Primeval Whirl, we had to escape the heat, so we went over to DINOSAUR with the nice, air-conditioned queue. Unfortunately, the queue was out the door, but at least we got to wait in the shade under fans for the most part. Still, I was sweating. It was miserably hot. However, once we got inside, the air-conditioning felt really good.

Day 1 - Festival of the Lion King

After breakfast, we decided to head over and line up for the 12:00 showing of Festival of the Lion King, though it was only 11:30. The last time we were at WDW, we didn't get to see this due to technical difficulties (we found this out after we had waited 30 minutes ).

We decided to sit in the elephant section because we'd never sat there before (we're usually lions). We sat on the first row behind the wheelchair seating.

Okay, now as soon as the elephant guy came out, Rachel says, "It's Chandler!"

Chandler is the biggest guy on the football team... I suppose to understand this, you'd have to see him...









Here's some more pictures from the show. (Flash photography is allowed.) The quality isn't very good. My camera didn't care for the lighting.

















Festival of the Lion King is one of my favorite shows at Walt Disney World. It's been the same for as long as I can remember, but it's great. It combines singing, dancing, acrobatics, and even fire twirling to create a very colorful production. I don't know of any other theme park with productions as elaborate as this.

Day 1 - Donald's Breakfast Safari at Tusker House

After the safari, we checked into Tusker House for our 10:20 Safari Breakfast. We were given a buzzer and sat at a shaded picnic table. We were all really hungry (it's a good thing I made this ADR... it was actually an afterthought, and I wasn't sure if we were really going to use it). After about 5-10 minutes, our buzzer buzzed.

We took a family picture and then were seated in a corner of the restaurant. Our safari guide (I don't know if that's what she actually was supposed to be, but I like that term), Veronica, gave us all Jungle Juice. Rachel chugged hers while Veronica was still telling us about the buffet. We both ordered Diet Cokes in addition to our Jungle Juice because we needed caffeine!

Donald and the gang wasn't near us, so we went on to the buffet. And, man, I filled my plate. I got like everything. But when I actually ate it, I was a bit disappointed in some of it... not all of it was hot, and the two meaty entrees had a weird flavoring to them. I really wanted some cheese grits.

I came back to the table and was greeted by Mickey. But Rachel was still at the buffet.



I managed to stall him long enough for Rachel to show...





Now, ten or so minutes later, Goofy showed up, and guess who was missing...



Once again, Rachel showed up with a big plate of food... Goofy really wanted her to share.



Luckily, she didn't miss Donald.



Or Daisy.



I can't remember what all I ate. I tried most everything. I ate a lot of fruit. The pineapple was good. So was the cheese.

Day 1 - Kilimanjaro Safaris

Now, after our second run, we decided to get FPs (FastPasses) and head on to Kilimanjaro Safaris before a crowd built over there. It wasn't crowded at all, right now.

Kilimanjaro Safaris opened with Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998. It is quite a unique attraction, with elaborate theming and clever planning. See, Walt Disney wanted to use real animals for The Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. However, he was advised not to do so because most of the animals he wanted to use were nocturnal or would spend most of the day sleeping or hiding from guests. So, they used animatronic animals for The Jungle Cruise. However, at Disney, no idea is ever completely shut-down. With Kilimanjaro Safaris, Imagineers found ways to persuade animals to stay visible throughout the day. Barriers are also seemingly invisible. As the animals adapt to their environment, Imagineers have to continue to make changes to the attraction. Though ever-changing, the storyline of the attraction has been rather consistant over the past eleven years. It is said that the best animal interaction occurs in the morning. We've also personally had good luck after rain. For the shortest wait, go here within the first hour of park opening or grab a FastPass to use later.

We actually walked at a leisurely pace. It wasn't hot, yet, and the trees provided a lot of shading.


Not bad...