Who knew choking each other would earn us fastpasses?

[mickeystoontown]

We finally called an end to our search for hidden Mickeys and continued on to the windows to see the animals on display. We also wanted to see if they were performing any kind of surgery or check-ups on any of the Animal Kingdom animals. In a little back room and off to the side, the veterinarians were taking x-rays of some type of hooved animal with twisted horns (I hate to keep saying deer so I'm saying hooved animal 'cause it sounds like I am all smart and stuff.) There was a castmember who had a microphone and she was telling everybody what they were doing. We asked how long it would be before they'd be out in the examination/surgery room and she kept saying "soon". Well, after about 15 minutes, we decided to move on and see what else we could find.

Mama gets physically ill when she sees snakes so we told her not to come to the next section because there were all sorts of snakes and lizards in the enclosures. She and John sat off to the side while Hunter and I looked. I know that I took pictures but they aren't on the "safely hidden" CD nor on my photobucket account so you'll just have to pretend that you are looking at pictures of snakes and lizards.

I did find this pictures which was of specimen cases in the shape of Mickey:

We all walked over to the section where there they show what types of foods the animals are fed. There was a castmember there preparing foods for some of the animals. Hunter and several other children were trying to ask questions but the castmember wasn't very talkative and didn't answer the questions in much detail...mostly just yes and no and I don't know answers.

We left the building and we stopped to look at the merchandise right outside the door. There wasn't a whole lot of things to look at but I wanted to look anyway. We ended up buying a package of mixed nuts and that was it.

We made our way back down the path to wait for the train to take us back to the main part of the park:

***Continued in next post

 

[Caretames1]

(I hate to keep saying deer so I'm saying hooved animal 'cause it sounds like I am all smart and stuff.)

I do the same, I want people to think WOW she's smart! I'll admit to saying "Look! a one horned deer" I meant antler, but.......

 

[mickeystoontown]

We made it back to Harambe:

and, instead of walking down the streets of Harambe, we cut through the store to see what they had that we just couldn't live without. We saw these drums stacked into the most interesting shape:

There were several t-shirts in the store that I wanted but they were pretty expensive, even by Disney standards, so I didn't buy any of them.

We were all getting hungry and, since it was hot, we wanted to sit somewhere that had air conditioning. Pizzafari sounded like just the place...it has decent food and air conditioning! I took pictures of the Tree of Life while walking over:

The pictures definitely weren't the best I have taken because this time I was doing it while walking since we were on a mission to get out of the energy-sapping heat.

Once we made it to Pizzafari, John and Hunter told me what they wanted to eat. They would go find a table and wait on us. Mama wanted to order a darned kids' meal again. I swear the woman is scared to death that her "counts" (referring to her blood tests results for her fatty liver) are going to go over by .0000002 so she's always watching what and how much she eats. I told her we were on vacation and she did not need to eat some little bitty meal. Just about that time, somebody walked by carrying a kids' meal and she saw how little it was and decided that it was too small for an adult.

We got to the counter and ordered our food. Hunter came in and told me where he and his dad were sitting so that we could find them. Mama and I waited for our food which came out pretty quickly. We walked to the back room where John and Hunter were and rested our tired tootsies.

Mama and Hunter ordered pizza. John ordered the italian sandwich and I ordered the chicken caesar salad. For desserts, we had two chocolate something-or-others and two strawberry something-or-others. The chocolate was a little too chocolately and the strawberry had a little bit of a twang to it but they were okay.

***Be back in a minute, Supreme Court Justice office on the phone.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Sorry, the Judge was just calling to wish my boss and I a happy holiday. That was very sweet of him.

Back to the report:

While eating, we spotted a couple of hidden Mickeys on the wall but I guess I only took a picture of one of them:

We lingered a while over our meal because the air conditioned restaurant felt so good and there were lots of empty tables. Normally, when it's a busy time of the day, we won't linger over our meals simply so that others can have our table when we are done. But, that day, there were plenty of tables available for the other guests.

It was decided that the next attraction we would see would be It's Tough To Be A Bug! We all love that show and Mama didn't remember much about it other than Flik being the host. We were happy to see that the line was virtually non-existent for It's Tough To Be A Bug and the wait time said just 5 minutes. Call me crazy but I like having a little bit of a line because I can take more pictures. But, this time, I was snapping while walking and none of them turned out well.

We reached the entrance to the waiting area and got our glasses. While waiting for the show to start, I took more pictures:

And Hunter took one of Mama and I:

One last picture before the show:

***Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

As always, the show was cute and we loved every loud minute of it! Instead of shuffling along with the rest of the crowd down the path out of the theater, we moved to the side and let everybody pass us by. I hate that "herding the cows" feeling that you get when you come out of theaters. I'd much rather let some of the other people go ahead of us.

Ya'll know me, I took pictures while waiting:

Okay, so now the story pics back up from where I was before. We were walking over to see how long the wait was for Kali River Rapids....the wait was too long....Hunter wanted to go on the Maharajah Jungle Trek....Mama and John wanted to just wait on us....yada, yada, yada.

Here are more pictures taken on the jungle trek. I have no idea why these pictures turned out so crappy. Normally, I take my time and try to focus in on what I am taking a picture of. But, I didn't really want to make Mama and John wait any longer than necessary (even though they told us to take our time) so I was just pretty much snapping pictures and continuing on. I didn't even get a good picture of the bats like I normally do.

Again, I know that some of my pictures are still missing in action because I took the annual picture of Hunter in front of the hidden Mickey right outside the tiger enclosures. I also took a picture of Hunter under the prayer flag tree saying his prayers. I also took a hidden Mickey picture on one of the painted murals. I guess if I find them later, I'll post them.

The only picture I took of the tigers because nobody would move out of the way and let us take a turn:

Hunter took this picture of me taking a picture:

You can see how big that bovine (didn't want to just say "cow" and wanted to sound like a smarty again) in Hunter's picture and these pictures:

I was able to snap a picture of this pretty bird in the aviary portion of the walk:

***Okay, so now I'm back up to the part where we are standing until the misting (or should I say spraying) fans waiting on Festival of the Lion King. I guess I should stop here since it's a good place to stop and since Photobucket froze up just as I posted my last picture. It's been doing that to me all day long.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I do the same, I want people to think WOW she's smart! I'll admit to saying "Look! a one horned deer" I meant antler, but.......

Two of a kind we are....two of a smart kind!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Hello! my dear Lisa
I have been taking dissing really slow these days...but, just got all caught up on your report. Love your story of the choking story...as always lots of fun, laughs and smiles while reading. You guys certaintly have had a full day started at AK and I LOVE the pictures of the gorillia at the water fall/stream. GREAT SHOTS!

Have a wonderful, beautiful, magical Christmas weekend!
Love to you all!
Connie

 

[Kathy Jetson]

I'm so happy for you that Lacy gets to go to Disney with you! I hope you can get Mama on board too. I loved all of your Animal Kingdom pictures but you are really scaring me with how hot it is. We're going in June for the first time this year from June 5th-11th. Was the heat that bad the whole time you were there?

 

[MEK]

I am so far behind on your TR, but your last update was so much fun. From one obsessive picture taker to another, I thoroughly enjoyed it. So glad you found the missing pictures. Most of them are really excellent. I saw some cool AK scenes I have not seen before. Now I will be on the hunt for them come May!

I love the murals at Rafikis planet. Thanks for pointing out all the hidden mickeys. I stink at finding them!

You guys all look so cute in your bug eyes. You also got some great pictures of the bats and ITTBAB /tree of life.

Loved it!

 

[MissLiz]

Oh goodness, lots to catch up on!

Sorry to hear about the flooding issue. I think my husband would have danced for joy if that happened to us. Our laundry room is right off our breakfast room and he has wanted to change that flooring since we moved in. I keep putting it off. It stinks that you had to deal with that right before the holidays!

Glad to hear that Lacey gets to go to Disney with you! That is fantastic!!!!

Love the Animal Kingdom pics! I can't even count how many times I've been there and there is always something I find that I have missed previously. I noticed a meerkat on the Tree in one of your pictures that I have never noticed before. Love it!!!

How did John like the Italian sandwich at Pizzafari? That is what we get every time we eat there. We really enjoy it. I like that restaurant, too, because it's so big. We have always seen a lot of empty tables in there, even when the line to get food is huge.

So, I think I've talked the hub into our Disney trip for next year. Yay!!!! I wasn't sure until I looked at the Google search history on our home computer and there were searches for "Disney World" and "Disney Cruise Line". I knew it was him because there is no way I would have to Google either of those, so I asked.

He said he was trying to decide where he wanted to stay when we go in September!

Yay!!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Now that I've gotten things straight on how we spent the day at the Animal Kingdom, I can pick back up where we were waiting in the spray fan line for Festival of the Lion King.

I don't remember how long we stood in the line....maybe 15...20 minutes. By the time they opened up the doors to the theater, our hair and shoulders were damp. It was almost as if we had been standing in a drizzling/foggy rain for a while. We shuffled along with the rest of the folks into the theater and were directed to the opposite side which is the elephant side. We found seats about four or five rows up. We learned our lesson from the year before that you do not want a lower seat unless it's the very front row which is normally reserved for handicapped guests. Why? Because you can't see a darned thing except for the back of the heads of the people in front of you.

Streams of people continued to flow into the theater and everybody was told to "slide down and fill in all available space". We slid down until there was no available space at all. Had I gotten any closer to my neighbor, I would have felt violated. Or vice versa.

Soon, the music started and you could feel the excitement starting to build until BOOM BAMM....out come the performers. I started snapping pictures with both cameras which means these pictures are soooooo out of order:

It's the tumble monkeys! I love the tumble monkeys!

Then the fire twirling guy came out and this is the only decent picture I was able to capture:

Next, these two performed:

Pictures I took while the singers sang some amazing songs:

***Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

I wish I had music I could insert here so we could listen to the Lion King while I'm posting.

Watch those fingers Mister. Those blades can cut ya!

The show never lets us down! It's always spectactular!

***Before I move on to the next installment, let me see if I can find my other Festival of the Lion King pictures to post.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I found more pictures of the show. Apparently, the ones that I posted first were from one camera and the ones below are from another. Hopefully, you aren't too tired of looking.

Okay, so there were more but they were pretty much the same as the ones I posted earlier so I won't post any more of the show.

Once the show was over, we, again, waited for some of the people to start filing out of the building but, for some reason, everybody was stopping. What was going on? Why weren't they leaving?

Because it was raining! A lot of the people didn't have ponchos so they didn't want to leave until the rain stopped. Others had on ponchos and couldn't get out. The castmembers were telling everybody that they had to exit the theater because they needed to get ready for the next show. While I didn't relish the thought of going out into the rain, we were ready but couldn't get out.

Some of the people were ticked off because they were having to go out in the rain without ponchos. I could understand them not wanting to leave but they should have also understood that this is Florida and it rains all the time AND the castmembers couldn't help it if they had to clear the theater in order to get ready for the next show.

Finally, we made our way out and it looked like this outside:

It wasn't raining hard, just showering and it stopped just about the time we made it to The Oasis. We took off our ponchos and decided to step aside for a little bit to let some of the people pass us. I guess, since it had rained, a lot of people figured they'd leave the park early.

While waiting, we looked around The Oasis. There are some neat animals there and some beautiful foliage:

**Continued in next post (too many pictures)

 

[mickeystoontown]

Mama took this picture of the three of us. My hair was a complete mess because of the heat and the humidity:

Hunter was telling his dad something in this picture and poor John couldn't hear what he was saying:

This little deer was looking at us and sniffing all in the air:

By this time, we had made it to the turnstiles and it looked like the crowds had thinned so we left. I took this close-up of the Animal Kingdom sign:

And this one of the lights while walking to the bus:

Bye Animal Kingdom!

***Up next: Spirit of Aloha Luau

 

[jenseib]

I got a few updates behind.
I am so happy that Lacy is going. What fun you all will have. ARe hre and Jesse going to go for the honeymoon now? I know they were debating it.
Great updates and beautiful pictures.

I loved that pink bird photo, so much so that I played with a bit. I kind of brightened it a bit. Not sure if I like it any better than your origional though. LOL!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I had no idea there were that many Hidden Mickey's in the Rafiki's mural! Wow! How cool. I'll have to look harder next time and take the extra time to linger. Henry would have a ball finding the ones that are lower to the ground. He finds Mickey in all sorts of everyday items now!

What a great day at AK! Minus the heat. I saw your comment about how the spraying fans might have come back to haunt Momma...uh-oh. I hope she doesn't get sick!!

Glad you found your additional pics because you had some really great ones! I love the details on the Tree of Life and all the Lion King pics!

May you and your family have a blessed holiday!! Merry Christmas!

 

[jenseib]

Merry Christmas Lisa!

 

[KatMark]

Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family, Lisa.

 

[MEK]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

[dismagiclover]

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, Lisa! I love your AK day! You really explored and enjoyed the park. You inspired me to head out to Rafiki's Planet Watch on our upcoming trip. We haven't been out there for a long time.