Welcome to day 3 of our honeymoon! Today we start off in Disney’s Animal Kingdom and then progress on to the Magic Kingdom. The Animal Kingdom is the park Kim was most looking forward to as she loves animals and conservation. Here we got a great opportunity to experience that in the signature Disney style. We had a lot of fun spending most of the day at Animal Kingdom. Early in the afternoon, we headed to the monorail stop and then onward to the Magic Kingdom in proper style. Our stay was cut short by a sudden torrential downpour, but that didn’t stop us from hitting all the main attractions.
-
- Here’s our Photo Pass picture from the Animal Kingdom with the giant tree in the background. We got there at park opening and ran right for the Expedition Everest roller coaster and got to ride it twice before the crowds formed. It’s probably the funnest roller coaster in all of Disney World (with Rockin’ Roller Coaster being a close second).
-
- Next we hit the Kali River Rapids on which we both got thoroughly soaked. It was a decent raft ride. Here I am posing in front of a snake statue in the line. The decor in the lines for Animal Kingdom was very good. Of course, with our masterful timing and good use of Fast Pass, we didn’t spend much time waiting in them.
-
- This was probably the cheesiest ride we participated in. We rode a bouncy jeep type vehicle through a dark warehouse with a bunch of fake lit up dinosaurs jumping out at us. The dinosaurs were disappointing and on par with the ones you see at traveling science shows. If Disney could make them MUCH more lifelike, the ride would be pretty cool. I’m sure kids would love it, but adults? Meh… kinda silly.
-
- Here’s Kim posing with a dinosaur statue just outside the gift shop for the Dinosaur! ride.
-
- All aboard the Wildland Express! This short train ride is the only way to get to Rafiki’s Planet Watch area of the park where the smaller animal and interactive exhibits are. This area is focused on conservation education which is pretty neat.
-
- It’s Rafiki himself! Kim wanted to get her picture with him, but there were so many kids who wanted their picture too that she didn’t want to upstage them. So I just snapped this quick one and we moved along.
-
- It’s a petting zoo Disney style! Called the “Affection Section”, it’s basically just goats and sheep. At least, we didn’t see any other animals there. Still, Kim loves animals of all shapes and sizes so in we went!
-
- The next bunch of pictures are all from the Kilimanjaro Safari ride which is essentially a platform that loads you into a giant safari vehicle that drives you all around the open plains area of the park with animals wandering free. One of the first things we saw was a pool full of hippos.
-
- After being up close and personal with crocodiles in the wild while we were in Costa Rica, this distant view from the safety of a large land vehicle kind of paled by comparison.
-
- Check out the horns on this heifer!
-
- Kim’s favorite! How many giraffes can you spot in this picture?
-
- What do you get if you cross an elephant and a rhino?
-
- Hellifiknow…
-
- The Pangani Forest Exploration Trail is one of the more zoo-like attractions in Animal Kingdom where you walk along a trail and see various types of animals in pens and out in the open. We came upon the gorilla exhibit and got treated to a show with the baby gorilla frolicking around, jumping, and rolling in the grass. I snapped a picture as “Dad” wandered up to check on his active little tyke.
-
- Here’s one of the many colorful and exotic birds we saw along the trail.
-
- Another cool looking bird we saw on the trail. There was one giant tented area with many different species flitting and twittering about.
-
- Ah! Don’t eat me!
-
- By the early afternoon, we’d had our fill of Animal Kingdom and decided to spend the last several hours of the day in the Magic Kingdom. Kim was pretty worn out by this time, so we took it slow. We did manage to fit in Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain, and Stitch’s Great Escape (formerly Alien Encounter).
-
- We got one more photo pass picture taken as we were leaving the park. Here we are with pumpkins and the castle in the background. You can’t quite tell that we’re soaked head to toe and a huge rainstorm had just passed through.
-
- For dinner we went back to Downtown Disney and ate at the Ragland Road Irish pub. The food was okay and the entertainment was fun. We got treated to an Irish pub band complete with various clogging performances.
When we came out of Stitch’s Alien Escape, it was just starting to rain. Kim actually welcomed it because she was getting tired of the heat and humidity. The pleasant trickle soon turned into a torrential downpour. By this time we were out in the open with no cover. It was still fairly warm though so we just pretended it was a nice warm shower and soldiered on. It was quite humorous because everyone else took cover and Kim and I were the lone people wandering the streets of the Magic Kingdom in the rain. I’m sure everyone thought we were crazy, but it was pretty cool to have the park entirely to ourselves. We figured once we were soaked there was no point in seeking shelter, so we just walked on to Thunder Mountain (which I had Fast Pass tickets for). Of course, the ride was shut down due to the rain, so we waited about 45 minutes for the rain to clear up and for them to run safety checks on the ride. In the end, the ride was underwhelming. I suspect it wasn’t running at full speed.
After our soaking experience, our energy for the day was pretty much gone. There were still a couple hours of park time left, but we decided to beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel room to dry off and change. After some rest, we headed back to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Raglan Road Irish Pub. These last two days at Disney were exhilarating but quite exhausting. While I was sorry to see it go, I’m sure Kim was looking forward to a more restful cruise to the Bahamas. See you then!