[kittylady1972]

Ok, that plan for early entry to Animal Kingdom wasn't happening since we didn't get everybody in bed until 10pm the night before, but everybody was up at 7am on this day, which is actually SLEEPING IN for our 6am early-risers! The in-laws had decided this would be a pool day for them since they had opted out of it the day before with us, so we are on our own for Animal Kingdom.

We drove over to Jambo House first to grab some breakfast there and then it was off to Animal Kingdom, not too late after the 8am opening. We decide to hit Dinoland first. I take the little kids on Triceratops Spin and DH takes DS9 on the Primevil Whirl since he's finally big enough to do that one and I'm not too fond of spinning rides.



The little kids and I get through two flights on the Triceratops Spin, then head over to just catch DH and DS9 on their ride and watch them. After this we head right to Dinosaur since this would be a first-time ride for Noah, and it's early enough to not have a line. Of course nobody has any interest in riding it again, but we get through it just fine.

Now we decide to check out the line for the Safari and we head over in that direction. I decide to send DH off to get FastPasses for that, while the kids and I cool off in the shade. Another 90+ degree day in Florida and it's not even 10:30am yet and we are HOT!



There is an 11:20am showing of Flights of Wonder and I've really wanted to catch this show, knowing how much DS9 especially LOVES birds. So we head over there next.


This show does NOT disappoint, the kids LOVE it and so do we! They can't stop talking about it later. It's great.

Next we catch our Safari ride via Fastpass. Not too many animals out this late unfortunately, and besides we can see many right from our room! Then we decided it's certainly hot enough for the Kali River Rapids, so we head there next! DS4 gets a special stamp and wristband for the "captains" chair, which basically means he gets an extra restraint once we are loaded into the raft. We ride with another group and are lucky enough that one of those people takes the brunt of the water. Yes, we get wet but not SOAKED and the kids do enjoy it for the most part. Now it's just too hot and our pool is calling our name, so we make it a day and head back to the hotel, doing some shopping at the gate on the way out. This is the first time in years we've been to AK and the kids have not been on the playground there, but when it's HOT it's hot!

Back at our room, we grab something to eat and hit the pool.



DD6 Noelle wants to play some of the games at the poolside, so we grab paper and pen for Disney Trivia. It's about fifteen Disney Trivia questions, and between myself and with the help of DH, I think we do pretty well. Noelle gives us the team name "Disney Gold" and turns in our paper.


The kids want to have some fun in the water play area, so I head over there and snap some camera phone photos as they play.






Now I should mention that much of this area is cement, though an area to the left for smaller kids has some foam. Cement + water = slippery! I have warned the kids many times NOT to run...so you know where this is going right? Sure enough, I glance up on the higher area with the water gun to see DD6 Noelle flat on her back...yep, fell and hit her head. Of course overall she seems okay, but when DH finally returns we check her over and then after getting her somewhat calm I head back over to the main pool area with her.

As I approach the pool what do I hear but "Team Gold? Team Gold?" Hey that's US...we must have won something! Yeah, forgot all about the Trivia game we had turned in for them to check over! It appears we won second place, which I only know because after that they award the 3rd place prize. Of course DD6 is thrilled, bump on the head forgotten, she chooses a prize:


Then they go over the answers, and as we are yelling them out loud I realize that I seem to be answering most of them myself. Of the two I get wrong, one was an answer I knew but DD6 had changed on me and the other I wasn't really even close. Either way, it's cool to have won!

After a while we head back up to the room to change for our Kona dinner reservation that night.