We hadn't gone into Animal Kingdom with much of a plan, but there was one thing that we were pretty interested in doing. I had been told over and over again that it was pretty much the greatest, and that we HAD to go see it.
Well, okay then...
To Festival of the Lion King we went!
As we followed the path to Camp Minnie-Mickey, we noticed that the park was getting increasingly packed. Festival of the Lion King was still around 10 minutes before showtime, so we had no trouble going in and finding seats in what turned out to be the Elephant section.
While we sat and waited, I consulted my phone, and yes, we had chosen wrong again for a low-crowds park for the day. Ironically, again today Hollywood Studios seemed to be the least-crowded park, and we decided that if AK was still packed when we left the show, we would hop over to HS for a bit.
The crowdwarmers came out a few moments before the show was set to begin, teaching everyone the "clap clap, over the shoulder, over the shoulder, I forget the rest" dance.
(What? I've never had the opportunity to use that guy before!)
And then the show began!
Learning how to sound like an elephant. I thought it would be less squeaky.
Our section's mascot.
It was at this point, around 2 minutes into the show, that I knew you guys were all correct. Seriously, this show was already awesome - and it had barely begun...
Tumbler monkeys!
I can't even fathom doing the stunts they were doing.
Fire dancer:
An attempt at taking a picture during "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?"
We LOVED the show - I think I was literally on the edge of my seat the entire time. The entire production was so well-done, the costumes were beautiful, it was just such a "Disney" show, if that makes any sense. Thank you for all of your fabulous recommendations...
!
(If there's anyone that hasn't seen Festival of the Lion King, seriously, YOU. NEED. TO. Finding Nemo is cool, but I think FOTLK is around a kabillion times better.)
We listened Timon and GOT OUT, and started walking back towards the central Tree of Life hub, immediately noticing that, yes, it had gotten exponentially more crowded in the last half-hour.
"Is there anything else here that you wanted to do?" Wingnut asked me. The only other thing I could think of was the Pangani Trail, but that would be all the way on the other side of the park.
"Nah. You?"
"Nope."
We turned and headed back towards the Oasis, following the signs to exit the park. Yes, I know this maybe wasn't the best chance we could have given Animal Kingdom, but we did go! And we did really enjoy our time there, brief as it was (it was a little after 11 at this point).
Would we go to AK again in the future? Probably. (But, spoiler alert, we didn't return again during our trip
)
We knew we had made the right decision to leave as we passed the steady stream of people entering the park. Time to move along!
We waited at the bus stop for only a few minutes before our air-conditioned chariot to Hollywood Studios appeared (gotta love those park-to-park busses!
)
Our feet. On a bus.
(I don't take actual TR notes while at Disney, I rely on my pictures to piece together our tale. Therefore I'll sometimes take pictures like our feet on a bus to remind me that, yes, we were on a bus.)
(It makes sense to me.
)
).
. 
It took us so long to finally go see it, and now that we finally did, we're both so in love with it! 
