Tuesday morning was our break from the parks! And by this point, our feet were ready for a half day break. The boys didn't really sleep in, but it was nice to not have to rush out the door. My mom and I made a big breakfast for everyone including scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, and english muffins. Sean and Evan enjoyed lounging around in their pajamas, playing with their Legos and other new toys, and watching cartoons on the TV.
By mid morning, the boys were ready to hit up the "pirate ship pool". Despite it not being "hot" yet and despite the sun going behind the clouds on and off all morning, they swam their hearts out. I wasn't brave enough to go in the pool (very disappointing that it wasn't heated), but I sure loved the hot tub! And hey! We were in Florida with palm trees! I wasn't about to complain about laying on a lounge chair while watching my boys swim with Scott and my dad all morning. Ahhhh vacation!
Around 11:30am, we moved back up to our room. We need to shower and get put together for Animal Kingdom. Scott went downstairs and picked up a Pizza Hut pizza and some breadsticks for everyone to munch on while getting dressed. And then we were off!
Animal Kingdom was the furthest park from us and the parking lot was filled with cars much further back than we were used to since we were arriving mid-day, but we didn't mind the walk in. While walking in, Evan fell asleep in our stroller so we improvised our plans so that we weren't doing any rides or anything where we'd need him out of the stroller for the first hour. Just as we were walking in, we saw Divine out and about! She was on my bucket-list for things to see while at the parks. I was so excited!
We walked through The Oasis trail to head toward Discovery Island and the Tree of Life. The Oasis trail had all kinds of exotic birds to look at, among other animals. It was really pretty! We made a stop at the Wilderness Explorers stand where Sean picked up his WE book and got his first sticker for learning the WE call. He was very excited to get started on all the badges! We grabbed an extra book for Evan in case he wanted to participate when he woke up. With Evan sleeping we did an adult only picture in front of the Tree of Life and moved on to Asia to see some of the trails and animals.
Asia was an area of Animal Kingdom that we didn't get to on our last trip so we made it a priority this time around. It was really neat and there were several badges for Sean to earn. On the Maharajah Jungle Trek we saw bats hanging upside down, a tiger sleeping, antelope (so cool!), and tons of other smaller animals.
After seeing Asia we moved over to Africa, which is the other end of the park. We wanted to catch The Lion King show again since it was so amazing on our last trip! We passed by Tamu Tamu where we grabbed some Dole Whips with rum and got the boys an ice cream bar too. They enjoyed banging on the drums and making some music while we took a little break before the show. Dark clouds were starting to move in so we had a feeling rain was on it's way.
My parents worked on covering the stroller with the rain cover and put it in stroller parking while Scott and I got in line for the Lion King show with the kids. They were still content eating their ice cream and making friends with the boy in front of us. Evan and him tickled each other for a while, which helped distract them from the wait. The show was fantastic! And this time neither of the boys had a meltdown from the music being too loud. I didn't even need to bring the noise canceling headphones - a big win!
When the show let out it was raining pretty hard and we were definitely grateful for having the foresight to put the rain cover on. Others around us weren't as lucky to have a dry stroller. We walked through Africa for a little bit with our ponchos and raincoats on waiting for it to stop raining. Our first Fastpass was coming up and we had to split up. My mom and Evan went on the African Safari since Evan wasn't tall enough to ride Expedition Everest with the rest of us. I was so excited to do this ride! But, with the rain I knew it was temporarily closed. We still decided to walk over there. We hung out over by the ride for a few minutes and luckily it re-opened while we were waiting. The ride was a bit too intense for Sean. It climbed up to the top and made it look like the track was broken and suddenly we went backwards quickly and in the dark. A yeti pops out and surprises you at one point and there was a pretty big drop. Poor kid was crying when he got off the ride..., but a nice Cast Member made him a pin that said, "I conquered Mt. Everest" and he made a pressed penny in the gift shop so he was back to normal soon after.
We met back up with my mom and Evan near our ride in Asia and had break number 2 of the afternoon with a popcorn bucket refill and another ice cream bar for Evan. They really enjoyed their Safari and saw tons of cool animals! It was then time for Fastpass number 2 of the day...Kali River Rapids. My mom sat out with Sean this time since he wasn't up for getting wet on the ride. The rest of our took our ponchos and reused them in an effort not to get soaked. It was a fun ride, but it was pretty short. And we got real luckily and didn't get very wet.
Our last section of the park was going to be DinoLand U.S.A. The boys loved this section of the park on our last trip and we knew they needed some time to let off some steam so we took the long walk all the way over to the The Boneyard. It's such a neat playground with dinosaur bones and fossils throughout and a spot to dig in the shade.
They kept themselves busy for a solid hour or so and we knew it was time to move on when Evan fell down and got his elbow all scraped up. Plus, it wasn't easy keeping track of them with all the kids playing so I was getting a little stressed. We walked over to our last Fastpass of the day, Dinosaur! Once again, my mom sat out and stayed with the stroller. Everyone else rode the ride. You start with a short video setting up the scenario. The ride was in the dark, very jerky and bumpy, and was pretty scary since you weren't sure when the dinosaurs would appear or jump out. Evan didn't seem to phased by it, but Sean was a little freaked out.
Everyone was ready for dinner after the ride. I had initially planned for us to eat at Flame Tree Barbeque in Discovery Island, but there weren't good choices for the boys. We changed it up and walked all the way back over to Asia and ate at the Quick Service counter for Yak and Yeti. The food was pretty good! Scott and I shared some honey chicken and some chicken fried rice. We found the perfect, quiet spot to eat that overlooked the Tree of Life and we even had some visitors while we ate...some very friendly, mooching ducks!
It was time to hit the road to the exit after dinner. The sun was setting and it was beautiful over the park! Live music was going on by Discovery Island on our way out and I stopped for a "Rivers of Light cupcake" from Starbucks. It was a great day in Animal Kingdom! It's such a beautiful park!
