We got up early and strolled from our cabana to La Tienda via the beach. The girls insisted upon stopping on the beach to build sea turtles in the sand and try out the hammocks. We finally got to the store, filled our mugs and picked up cereal for the little one, milk, 3 muffins and 2 bananas, for the low price of $12.00. After breakfast in the room we picked up the bus and arrived at Animal Kingdom at 8:15.
I should mention that this is not my favorite park. Even in value season it always seems over crowded, and I don't like walking in lock step with the crowd or risking an achilles tendon wound from an errant stroller. However, if I could go to the AK ALL BY MYSELF, I would love it! LOL! We had seen all the big shows last time, so we decided to do the rides and exhibits this time. We took out time to look at the small animal and bird exhibits on the way to the Tree of Life. It was very enjoyable and relaxing walking through the oasis and trying to spot the animals. We had a tough time finding the entrance to the Bug show, but the line wasn't too bad once we got there. We all liked that show a lot, my 6 year old gets nervous in dark or loud places, but she didn't mind this show at all. We then got a fast pass for the safari, and hopped on the train to conservation station. We listened to "Sounds of the Rainforest" twice, (this is one of DD#1's favorite things at the AK) then I took DD#2 out to the affection section so she could brush goats (her favorite thing!). After looking at a few of the exhibits we hopped back on the train and used the fast pass for the safari. We had pretty good luck, saw lots of elephants, gazelles, a lion, and hippos, but no zebras and few giraffes.
We decided to head over to Asia where we walked through the bat exhibit, saw the tigers and monkeys and then rode the Kali River Raft ride. It is a fun ride, but at one point a HUGE wave rose up into the air and hovered cartoon-like for a few seconds before crashing down squarely on DD#2's head! Luckily it was 83 degrees.
We went over to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur, which was toned down since our last visit. DD#2 lay on her side and buried her face in my side for the entire ride, then asked to go again! We tried to get into Tarzan Rocks, but it was full, so we headed over to the Rainforest Cafe. We had a 2:00 priority seating, arrived about 1:45 and had a 40 minute wait. Once we were seated, we discovered that the restaurant was not running at full capacity because of lack of help, so there were long waits in spite of many empty tables. The atmosphere was fun and the food was fine, but it was freezing inside and we rushed a bit to get back outside where it was warm.
We hadn't had much time at the hotel yet, so we headed back to CSR and went for a dip in the main pool. The girls pretended to be rescue dogs who kept pulling me to the side of the pool. Luckily the pool was uncrowded, so my embarrassment was kept to a minimum.
After washing up we decided to try the Pepper Market. I got the chicken taco salad, which consisted of canned chicken, black beans lettuce and tomato. No cheese, onions, olives, salsa, guac, sour cream or anything else. I asked for guac or sour cream and was told they had none. This is a Mexican place? The chicken was sopping wet and gross. I complained to the "waitress", who just laughed and walked away. I presumed she did not speak English. A really disgusting meal, but expensive!
When we got back to our room we heard a man had been killed on Splash Mountain. How awful! DD#1 insisted she would never go on that ride again, because it was probably haunted. Kids!
I should mention that this is not my favorite park. Even in value season it always seems over crowded, and I don't like walking in lock step with the crowd or risking an achilles tendon wound from an errant stroller. However, if I could go to the AK ALL BY MYSELF, I would love it! LOL! We had seen all the big shows last time, so we decided to do the rides and exhibits this time. We took out time to look at the small animal and bird exhibits on the way to the Tree of Life. It was very enjoyable and relaxing walking through the oasis and trying to spot the animals. We had a tough time finding the entrance to the Bug show, but the line wasn't too bad once we got there. We all liked that show a lot, my 6 year old gets nervous in dark or loud places, but she didn't mind this show at all. We then got a fast pass for the safari, and hopped on the train to conservation station. We listened to "Sounds of the Rainforest" twice, (this is one of DD#1's favorite things at the AK) then I took DD#2 out to the affection section so she could brush goats (her favorite thing!). After looking at a few of the exhibits we hopped back on the train and used the fast pass for the safari. We had pretty good luck, saw lots of elephants, gazelles, a lion, and hippos, but no zebras and few giraffes.
We decided to head over to Asia where we walked through the bat exhibit, saw the tigers and monkeys and then rode the Kali River Raft ride. It is a fun ride, but at one point a HUGE wave rose up into the air and hovered cartoon-like for a few seconds before crashing down squarely on DD#2's head! Luckily it was 83 degrees.
We went over to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur, which was toned down since our last visit. DD#2 lay on her side and buried her face in my side for the entire ride, then asked to go again! We tried to get into Tarzan Rocks, but it was full, so we headed over to the Rainforest Cafe. We had a 2:00 priority seating, arrived about 1:45 and had a 40 minute wait. Once we were seated, we discovered that the restaurant was not running at full capacity because of lack of help, so there were long waits in spite of many empty tables. The atmosphere was fun and the food was fine, but it was freezing inside and we rushed a bit to get back outside where it was warm.
We hadn't had much time at the hotel yet, so we headed back to CSR and went for a dip in the main pool. The girls pretended to be rescue dogs who kept pulling me to the side of the pool. Luckily the pool was uncrowded, so my embarrassment was kept to a minimum.
After washing up we decided to try the Pepper Market. I got the chicken taco salad, which consisted of canned chicken, black beans lettuce and tomato. No cheese, onions, olives, salsa, guac, sour cream or anything else. I asked for guac or sour cream and was told they had none. This is a Mexican place? The chicken was sopping wet and gross. I complained to the "waitress", who just laughed and walked away. I presumed she did not speak English. A really disgusting meal, but expensive!
When we got back to our room we heard a man had been killed on Splash Mountain. How awful! DD#1 insisted she would never go on that ride again, because it was probably haunted. Kids!
