Off to Animal Kingdom

This might be a crazy statement to most but Animal Kingdom is probably my favorite Walt Disney World Park.  It's a zoo, which I always love, with a budget!  

Kilimanjaro Safaris is the icon attraction for the park and rightfully so.  What's not to love about a narrated safari with animals that are always in view.  

My other favorite attraction in the park is Everest.  It's a fantastic roller coaster with a temperamental yeti.  The best moment for me on the attraction is riding up the mountain for the first time.  Look to your left and you will see the Epcot ball, the Swan and Dolphin hotels, and The Tower of Terror.

And of course the characters.  The lines for characters in Animal Kingdom are always reasonable if non existant for characters like Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.

The details of this park are what set it above any other.  It feels more like Disneyland when it comes to attention to detail.  Good job Mr. Rohde.  Walt would be happy.  It's like the Jungle Cruise he always wanted.

And more characters.  It was my first time visiting with Russel and Dug.  Gotta love new characters, ka kah!

And finally Dinosaur.  It's the terrible version of Indiana Jones.  But it is my favorite bad ride in the parks so I must go on it each visit.  I never quite remember where the camera is so the picture is always fantastic.  We're the bottom two on the left.  I usually have a "you cannot be serious" face.  Rachel does not look happy either.

Until next time Animal Kingdom!

Up next, Hollywood Studios

The Two Kingdoms

My mom and my favorite park is probably the Animal Kingdom.  We always love the placemaking of the park and most of the attractions are great.  As always we started at Kilimanjaro Safaris.  Can't go wrong with a savanna adventure to start the day.

So many giraffes and other wild animals on a day that would almost set record highs!

It's very impressive to hear about the return of the white rhino's population coming back from endangered and seeing many of them in the swamps of Florida

Plus you gotta love running into some real characters along the trails of the park.

We tried Dinosaur again from our last visit last year.  My face on the upper right basically says really, this is what you did with the Indiana Jones adventure... classic!

We had lunch at Restaurantosaurus.  The salad was fanstastic, like nachos with lettuce but the veggie sandwich was horrible!   We got our money back on the sandwich to use again at another restaurant.

We started our last day hitting each park at the Animal Kingdom.  The park had extra magic hours in the morning so we could start an hour before any other guest who was not staying at the resort.

After going on Kilimanjaro safari again and Expedition Everest three times we needed breakfast to start the day off well.  My sandwich was excellent from Pizzafari.

A character I haven't seen in a while is Flik.  Love his autograph!

We had visited a couple days before looking for more characters.  We found Miss Bunny in Camp Minnie Mickey and lets just say that Miss Bunny was not is the best of moods.  

After the moody Miss Bunny we found Daisy, got here autograph and a photo with no line!  

Thumper was in a much better mood then Miss Bunny!

On our way out of Mickey Minnie we found Pocahontas.  Always nice to see a powerful lady!

We even found Timon.  I've never even heard of him as a meet and greet character before.  Totally worth waiting in line and delaying our adventure to our next park!

We actually started our Adventure in the Magic Kingdom.  A good way to start the day is meeting with Mickey and Minnie!  The Main Street Theater is the new home for Mickey and Minnie along with a temporary home for the Princesses.  It's always great to see the couple together with only a 5 minute line!

Found a little nod to all the all of the Walt Disney World parks while in the theater.  Very cleaver Imagineers.

The one thing that I got terribly distracted by was a new game in the Magic Kingdom called the Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom.  You collect and use playing cards to assist Merlin to beat Hades from taking over the Magic Kingdom.  I'll admit I got a little obsessed.   You go to "portals" set up around the park to beat Hades.  Ton of Fun.  Please come to Disneyland!

I collected 30 of the 60 cards available and was a little sad that I didn't get them all. 

I guess I will have to go back to play some more!

We found Pinocchio on Main Street and had to get a photo! 

Right across the Street there was Pooh and Tigger!

And to finish the Main Street Adventure we went to the Walt Disney World Railroad.  Their engines are so much bigger than Disneyland's.   I assume they are full scale engines with a deep whistle.  After waiting about 10 minutes to leave the station.  That would not be ok in Disneyland attractions... but that is a whole other story!

A bigger station with not as much to look at.  Oh Disneyland Main Street Station I missed thee...

Another attraction we had to try and compare was the Jungle Cruise.  Everything is so much closer to you, which make it more difficult to believe the illusion.  It seems so strange to me that WDW has so much more space and everything is so much closer to you.  Rant over... for now.

One thing that I love in the attention to detail in many of the shops.  This dress changes colors with the continuing argument between Flora and Merryweather.  Now that's Magical!

To continue the comparisons we went to Liberty Squre and watched the Hall of Presidents.  After watching Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln so many times the figures aren't quite a cool.  But to have all of them together is impressive.

More Walt Disney World photos and adventures to continue tomorrow!