Animal Kingdom

We spent Wednesday at Animal Kingdom.  Diane and Craig had given Brad and I tickets to go on the Wild Africa Trek in Animal Kingdom and our trek was 3 hours long and it started at 11:30am.  Animal Kingdom opened that day at 8am and closed at 7pm.  Brad and I ended up taking the boys to Animal Kingdom around 8:30am and Cecilia stayed back with Grandma and Grandpa.  We figured we had already worn Grandma and Grandpa out after a day at Magic Kingdom, so we would let them relax with Cecilia at camp and then they would meet us at Animal Kingdom in time for us to go on our Wild Africa Trek.

Joel under a dinosaur

Vincent under a dinosaur skeleton

Joel in Dinoland

Climbing in the dinosaur dig playground

Joel having fun!

Digging for dinosaur bones

Vincent uncovering dinosaur bones

Mommy and her boys

Daddy and his boys

Brad and Vincent went on a ride called Dinosaur that Joel wasn’t tall enough for and they really enjoyed it.  Joel and I rode a flying triceratops and went to the dinosaur playground area.  It was a fenced in area that had slides, bridges, areas to climb and a bridge over to a sand pit where you could dig for dinosaur bones!  There was only 1 entrance and 1 exit and it was nearly impossible for children to escape.  There were so many tunnels, stairways, slides, etc that you might lose your child temporarily, but they would appear eventually.  The boys got a sneak peak at it before Grandma and Grandpa arrived and then they got to spend a lot of time there while Brad and I were on our Wild Africa Trek.  Brad and I were also able to take the boys around, show them different animals and check out a few things about the park before we went on our trek.  It was nice for them to have Mommy and Daddy to themselves and be able to do some big kid things without their little sister around.

Cecilia all ready to have fun!

Rhino

*Wild Africa Trek group

* Brad and I with Henry the Hippo

Our Wild Africa Trek was amazing!  We were with another couple and their 9 year old daughter and our 2 guides.  We had harness on for the first half of the trip.  The trip takes you past the same things you see on the Jungle Safari attraction, but at a much slower pace so you can learn more about the animals and have closer encounters with them as well.  We were able to lean over a ledge and see Henry the hippo and watch him eat a snack.  We also learned a lot about the hippos at Animal Kindgom.  It turns out they are all obese and they have implemented an excersize program for them.  The trainers call them all to one end of the river in the habitat and then back to the other end.  It sounded like they did that several times in a row to help lose weight.

*Crossing the bridge

*Brad on the bridge

*Our guides!  They were wonderful!

Bird in a bath

Bird nests

Blue footed bird...can't remember the name

More birds!

Henry

Henry

Also on our adventure we walked on hanging bridges that ran over the crocodile pens.  They have a group of crocodiles that have all been together since they were very young.  They are all males, which they say they keep that way to keep down on the fighting.  They still fight and many of the crocodiles are missing toes, or feet, and have scars on them.  From there we headed out to a safari vehicle to take us on the African plains portion of the tour.  Unlike the regular safari our driver was able to pull off to the side while our guides were able to give us some inside information on animals.  Every night all the animals get put away in their barns and each barn has its own bell that is rung at night and the animals are trained (some more than others) to go to the barn when they hear their bell.  They told us that the wildebeests don’t like to go to the barn and are always the hardest ones to put away at night.

*Walking over the crocodiles

*Brad and the crocs

*Brad and I with the crocs

*Brad and I

Bridge

Crocs just hanging out

I just thought it was a cool picture

The also informed us about different projects the Disney Wildlife Conservation group is working on.  One of the projects includes giving bee hives to farmers in Africa to help protect their crops from elephants.  Elephants are known to eat farmers’ crops, but with research they discovered that elephants are afraid of bees.  So the conservation group has been giving bee hives to farmers.  They put them on the corners of their field and there is a trip wire that runs between the hives.  If the wire it tripped (by an elephant or other animal) it aggravates the bees and then the elephants hear the bees and run away.  The farmers can sell the honey to make extra money and the elephants aren’t killed for being a nuisance.

*look at those antlers!

Rough life

Baby elephants just got done wrestling in the water

Giraffe being funny

Wrestling in the mud!

We stopped for lunch at a pavilion in the middle of the African plains exhibit.  We were served delicious food.  It was all things I have never eaten before nor would I have ever ordered them at a restaurant, but I tried them all and they were delicious!  The trek was amazing and I would highly recommend it.  As part of your fee you also got a cd with pictures from your trip and a donation was made in your name to the Disney Wildlife Conservation fun.

Half of our lunch.  The flower was even edible.

I love giraffes

Ostrich crossing the road

Flamingoes

After our trek we met back up with Diane, Craig and the kids.  The boys were exhausted from all their playing in the Dinosaur park!  We walked around the park for a while and went to my favorite roller coaster, Everest!  The line is long, even with a fast pass, but they have a single rider line that is a 5 minute wait.  Standing in a short line was more important to me than sitting next to Brad on the ride.  Craig, Brad and I went on the roller coaster and had a blast!  We tried to convince Diane to go, but she didn’t want any part of it.  We also took the kids on the Safari so they could see all the animals and also so we could show them where we had been for 3 hours of the day.  I really thought Joel would love it but he lost it as soon as we got in the truck for our ride.  Lucky for us, and the other passengers, watching a YouTube music video of “Girl on Fire” calmed him right down.  Vincent had fun on the ride and so did Cecilia.  She was pointing at the animals and was not happy when she had to stop looking at the animals so I could take her picture.  We also took a train ride (that Joel really enjoyed) out to see the vet clinic and petting zoo that they had.

Grandpa Craig, Grandma Diane, and Vincent on a safari

Brad and Cecilia.  She was not happy I made her look at me for a picture.  She loved looking at the animals.

Brad and the boys on a train ride

Vincent looks so small next to a Rhino

Joel and the rhino

Cecilia, Vincent and a tiger

Joel and a pig

As the day went on it started getting cooler out.   Cecilia and I walked around while everyone else went to see the Bug’s Life 4D movie.  Then we went to find Donald Duck and get our picture with him.  Vincent had only 2 requests about our trip.  He wanted to see Donald Duck and Goofy.  We knew there was less than a 50% chance Joel would get close to Donald Duck, but we figured it was worth a try.  When it was finally our turn to meet Donald Vince, Cecilia and I walked up to him and had our picture taken.  Cecilia did not like it!  Vince was very excited and Joel was hiding by Brad, but very happy to see Donald from far away.  Afterwards we went to see the Lion King show they have.  The show is very impressive and the acrobatics are amazing!  The kids lost interest towards the end but did pretty well.  When we walked out of the show it was cold and it had rained!  No big deal, the park was closing and it was time for us to head to our dinner reservations at The Rain Forest Café.  

*Another picture of the two of us

*Group photo

Again it was a very full day, a very late night, and we were all exhausted!  We were all looking forward to getting to sleep in the next day!

Vincent, Cecilia and Mommy with Donald Duck!

*Denotes a picture that was taken by someone on the Wild Africa Trek and not by me*