"Swell, just what I need, a couple of rodents looking for a theme park"- Hercules
Our phone rang at 8am and David answered it. I asked him if it was Mickey and he said he couldn't understand it.
He went to take his shower and I woke up the kids and set out their clothes. The Animal Kingdom called for camouflage of course. Joey and Adam had camo shorts and black t-shirts. Daisy had camo capris and a yellow camisol tank top with small white print and a short sleeved yellow sweater. I had olive green cargo pants and a yellow knit shirt, Aunt Pat wore olive green capris and a black t-shirt and David wore a black t-shirt and olive green shorts. Sshhh don't tell him he matches us!
The automated wake-up call wasn't working in the other room so after the boys were dressed and ready I called for another one so they could hear it. Joey answered it and said "It's the music from the coolest ride ever." They were playing the soundtrack from Splash Mountain.
Everyone was ready to leave and as I gathered what I needed to take for the day I looked at the printout I'd brought from home with all our ADR numbers on it and decided not to take it. I hadn't needed the reservation number at Coral Reef the night before so I figured we'd be fine.
We got to the bus stop about 9:15am and saw lots of people going to Magic Kingdom, which by the way was the warned against park for the day by both Unofficial Guide and Tour Guide Mike. Animal Kingdom was the third bus to come along and we were on our way.
Now as any coffee addict who has visited a Disney park will tell you the Nescafe that Disney serves as coffee only resemblance to actual coffee is that it is brown and generally hot. It is not that it is bad, sugar and creamer can mask simply bad coffee, it is horrible! There is not enough sweetener to even bring the taste up to bad. Only the absolute need of caffeine withdrawal symptoms, headache, blurred vision, extreme crabbiness, makes it possible to drink Nescafe. That is why there are whole pages of threads on the Dis devoted to where to find real coffee in Disney World. One of those rare places happens to be the coffee stand outside the gates to Animal Kingdom.
Once off the bus I was determined to find said coffee stand. There it was right out front where it was suppose to be. Aunt Pat and I went to purchase our liquid gold in the form of vanilla lattes. The kids and David spent the time trying on a few hats.
Once our lattes were ready we entered the lush vegetation of Animal Kingdom. Picking up park maps we set out on the 2nd quest of the day, to get Expedition Everest Fast Passes. We stopped briefly to get a few pictures of the kids in front of the Tree of Life.
As overwhelmed by the size of the sphere at Epcot as I was yesterday, I was underwhelmed by the Tree of Life. It was certainly pretty but not near as large and commanding as I had imagined it to be. Over the bridge and our first glimpse of Everest.
Now that was impressive. I looked around for Photopass photographers in both those areas but never saw one.
It was just before 10am and we had a 10:30 ADR at Tusker House. I wasn't sure how long it would take us to get from Asia to Africa so we grabbed Fast Passes for Everest and hurried out of the area. Daisy really wanted to go on Kali River Ride. Grizzly River Run is her favorite ride at Disney's California Adventure and Kali looked similar. I was hesitant because of our ADR time but we were right there and there was no wait.
We pulled out our ponchos and headed down the trail to Kali. I briefly saw that there was a news type video playing that probably helped explain the themeing of the forest destruction, but we hurried on through the queu. With in seconds of climbing into the raft we were glad for the ponchos. The geyser at the top of the hill climb was going full blast and Aunt Pat would have been soaked if not for the $1.49 plastic. Kali is shorter than Grizzly with only one drop but it was fun. I didn't really care for the burning log smell, but the heat blast was a nice effect.
After Kali we pulled off the ponchos, stuffed them back in Aunt Pat's bag and hurried off towards Africa and our date with Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House.
I burnt water once!
