haha, yes, there are bats. Creepy!
As for summer plans summer school starts Monday so that'll keep me busy until end of July (and a few hours at my other job...). Then we'll do the usual Brewer games and hopefully State Fair before our trip. Any plans to come to Milwaukee?
Ohhh.. if you do we could do a Milwaukee/Wisconsin dis meet!!!! That would fun!!
I agree we should do a DISMeet.
I know I am going to a Brewer Game Aug. 22nd. My dh work place is having their annual picnic there this summer. It's my 29th wedding anniv. too. My dh, came home and told me, he has our anniversary dinner picked out. I told him, I knew all about the Brewer Game.
We are heading to Elkhart Lake, Saturday, Nascar has a race. Can't wait, we are all big Nascar fans. The 2 girls and my oldest son are doing the 3 mile mud race Saturday in Madison. I wish I was more in shape, or I would do it too. My dd said it should only take an hour. It is running obstacle courses, running, slugging through mud. I think WDW had one on Mother's Day. I read a few TR's, mentioning a mud race.
Friday, April 9, 2010 cont'd (part 4)
Let me preface this update by saying a couple of things:
1.) There may be possible spoilers in this post
so if you are thinking about doing the Backstage Safari Tour and dont want to know what its all about, go ahead and skip reading this.
2.) There wont be any pictures in this post
as you probably know cameras are not allowed on tours to preserve the magic. For someone like me who loves taking pictures it kind of stinks but obviously I understand why they dont allow cameras. So youll have to use your imagination.
After our lunch and looking around some of the AK shops we headed out toward the main gates where we were supposed to meet to check in for the Backstage Safari tour. Around 1:00 we saw two CMs with a sign for the Backstage Safari tour (as well as another tour/camp of some sort) so that was our cue to go sign in. We found out that our tour guides name was Kelly. Let me just say she was great. I really liked her. Anyways, our tour group ended up being pretty small. It was just me, Dad, and then another father and daughter. When we signed in we all got name badges as well as these little headsets that we could use to listen to Kelly if the park crowds were too loud. Haha
Before setting off on our adventures, Kelly introduced herself. I believe she said that she used to work for Sea World or Busch Gardens before being offered the job at Animal Kingdom. She also told us how she got into education by volunteering at her kids school and then started subbing (hmm, maybe I should try to get a job at AK!). Then she had everyone in the group introduce themselves. We had to say where we were from and our favorite animal. Turns out the other father and daughter were there celebrating the girls birthday. So once we were all acquainted Kelly told us a little bit about the tour and how there were a lot of fun surprises we were going to see. I couldnt wait to see where wed end up! Then we were off!
Our first order of business was to get to a backstage area where wed hop on our magic carpet. We were told that there was a lot of ground wed be covering so it was nice to have that ride. As we made our way backstage (right near the Rainforest Café I believe it was) Kelly told us how there are over 4 million plants in the park from all continents (except Antarctica). Later on in our tour I remember seeing something that said without the rides and animals, AK would be the largest botanical garden in the world. Interesting!
Once we were backstage we hopped into our van, err, magic carpet, to head over to our first stop. I loved how Kelly tried to be all secretive about where we were going but she mentioned something about elephants while calling over there. WOOO, we were going to see the elephants (or atleast something related to elephants)!!! Another interesting thing we were told on the drive was that AK is built like a big salad bowl. All the area around the park is built up so when you are in the park its like youre in the bowl. Who knew?! It was also funny driving around because they had signs along the road for Earth Day and Animal Kingdoms birthday. This is going to sound stupid but I almost kind of forget (or dont even realize!) there is all the behind-the-scenes stuff going on to make the park run.
After a few minutes we saw the giant structure that was our first stop
the elephant barns! We learned that the building can withstand a category 5 hurricane. OK, quick question: how many elephants does the Animal Kingdom have?
a. 6
b. 10
c. 12
d. 9
The correct answer? 12! Or to be more exact, it is technically 5.7. Are you as confused as I was when Kelly told us this? Obviously there has to be some meaning behind that
how can you have .7 of an elephant? Turns out the 5.7 means that there are 5 males and 7 females (or it could be the other way around, stupid me in my trip notes wrote males next to both 5 and 7
). Anyways
we then got to go into the barn to take a look around. All I can say is it was HUGE. We also got to see an elephant skull, tusk, and elephant hair, which was really more like wire it was so coarse. It was also pretty cute because they had pictures of all the AK elephants on the wall.
On the way out we saw a couple more CMs working with one of the elephants so Kelly told us a little bit about how they train the animals. Then we hopped back into the van to head to our next destination which was the Nutrition Center. At the Nutrition Center we got to see where they prepare the food for the animals and where they keep all the browse. It was pretty fascinating to hear that the animals get the same quality of food as all the Disney World guests. They dont give them any less! We were also able to talk with another CM about this special gel that they can use if the animals need medication. Apparently some of the animals are like kids and dont like their medication. I guess some of them even figured out ways to get their medication out of their food. So what they do is include this gelatin in their regular diet and if they need any type of medicine they just slip it in. The animals then are so used to the gel they dont notice. Hehe
We thanked the other CMs for talking to us and were on our way to the next backstage stop. Where would it be
???
Up next: More Backstage Safari Tour and which animal did we get to see up close and personal?!?![/I]
Only a teacher leaves educational cliff hangers. Cool tour, I think I'll sign up for one next time.
to my TR! I'm glad you are enjoying it and that it's getting you pumped for your trip. 
I can't wait to hear about the rest of your tour!
Not like Keys to the Kingdom. That tour is packed every day. That's amazing that the elephant house can withstand hurricane force winds. I always wondered how they prepare for such things. Looking forward to more details on the tour.
I know I've seen some threads on the DIS Meet board.
