Instead of Dino, we went to lunch at the Restrauntsaurs place... typical fast food but I do want to say that the service was super FAST!
Then we made our way over to Africa ..the marketplace is where we needed to meet our guide for the safari tour.
This sign made me chuckle
A few things about this tour.... they say to be there 20 minutes early.... be there and please be ready...potty and all. no drinks or food unless they are capped drinks and food is in a sealed container... they are really funny about smells on the tour as the animals get nosey when they smell something good lol
We had 2 other families with us... 1 a newly wed couple and the other family.... family from HELL..... they showed up 10 minutes LATE...yes we had to wait for them.... and then had to use the bathroom and came back with coffee and snacks which we had to wait for them to finish as they would not throw them out and they couldnt go on the tour AACKKKK this family was a bunch of pains in the butts through the whole tour!!!!
Even the guides were rolling their eyes and sighing... the age is 3 and older but they had a 1 year old and they paid for her ticket and didnt mention that she was under 3.... the guides werent sure what to do so let it all slide... ticked me off too as this kid was a total BRAT the entire time LOL
We got in our van.... nice seats and great windows! The talking guide was the lady in charge of all the apes in the park. we learned soooo much from her and it was REALLY cool hearing how the safari is run behind the scenes!
We drove backstage but were not allowed to take photos =(
pretty boring stuff except for the barns....
then we were in the safari..... we drove all over the area in and out of the ride path looking for the animals.... we saw every animal on the safari EXCEPT the zebras. We found out there were no zebras on the safari as they were all in time out for fighting and picking on the new giaraff in the exhibit... this giaraff was from the AKL and was having some trouble being accepted by the others and the zebras were picking on it sooooo they were put in a backstage pasture until the new giaraff was doing better. There were so many stories we learned... some really cool things about how all the animals REALLY do go back to the barn (the safari animals) each night. I thought for sure they stayed out but they dont.... they blow a whistle and all the animals stampede to their barns as trained. They get special treats in their enclosures so they RUN to the barns LOL
its also cooler and has central air LOL
The reason they do this is the handlers can do a quick inspection each evening of the animals... looking for wounds that might need to be treated and what not.... animals in any enclosure can have tiffs with each other and you dont want a cut becoming infected.
Also the other reason is if they need to get them inside in a REAL hurrt for weather...... they are trained to come running at the whistle and they keep the training fresh in their wee brains lol
Also some of the animals take birth control (such as the hippos) and some of the older ones have to take arthritus meds and junk like that.....
We also learned about the breeding problems with the hippos LOL they had an over population of hippos .... no matter how they tried to seperate them the males would still end up with the females LOL they started them on birth control and a high voltage shock thing along the enclosures.... when you ride you will see on 1 side the gals and the other side of the road are the boys pining away for their loves LOL
There is an elephant due to have a baby any day now.... we were hoping she would have it while we were there but no such luck.... they put her in the barn as she was getting a little too nervous on the safari.
They have had 3 baby elephants born on property. The first one was super tricky as the herd had been rescued from other locations and had never seen a baby before!!!! What a challenge to train a whole herd about babies LOL
They would used large barrels and roll them between the elephants legs to teach them how to dodge things between the legs.... the new mother totally freaked when the baby came and had no idea what to do!!! It took her a week to accept the baby and they really had to work hard to get the rest of the herd to understand the baby..... by the time the 3rd baby was born they had it down PAT! The reason they wanted them to have babies is elephants are VERY strong mothers... its part of their make up to be elephants.... its not like other animals.... female elephants have to care for their young or they dont do well in captivity...... they need a strong family unit to do well.
Oh and when you go by the mandrills you usually dont see them.... but if you yell out and call for SNOW.... the name of the female... she usually comes running and bobs her head for you...WAY COOL! We always miss the nadrills but as soon as we yelled out for snow she came running from her cover and was bobbing her head for us!
Here are a few pics from the safari
Remember dingy family? Well the guide told us this particular giraffe was pregnant. They had just found out a few days beforehand that she eas expecting. Well the mother from FAMILY FROM HELL REALLY AND TRULY ASKED:
"Do Giraffe's breastfeed?"
I HAD to do it... ohhh yes I had to...
"Nope they run down to
walmart and pick up formula on the way home from work.... here's your sign"
I said it laughingly and she thought it was funny but SHEESH what a ding bat
These next shots are of the 3 babies playing in the water!!!!! It was sooooooooooo cute!!! They were like puppies splashing and chasing and blowing water on eachother...along with rolling in the water!
The guide told us out of all the years she has been there she has only seen this 3 times so it was special for us to experience it! They really were like little kids, splashing and rough housing with eachother! It was adorable to see the mama's patiently watching their babies get rid of extra pent up energy
It gave me a soft spot towards the mama's as I could almost hear the sigh that MOM sigh while their kids were acting like knuckleheads
I was wondering if you can book the guide if you are staying at the value resorts as well. Can't wait to hear more about your trip. Soo sorry about the toes, I do understand the inevitable yelp of pain.
Even though everyone was staring at you with your face painted, chances are you'll never see those people again, but your daughter will remember it forever! Plus, to give up Le Cellier~ haha ... that deserves some award! 
but we went to the show and had a GREAT time. They'll never forget that! No amount of money could make up for their faces during that concert! 
