Day 3: Disney's Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was one of the Disney’s Parks that we knew we wanted to go to.  We looked at the forecast, and it called for a cloudy day, so off to the park we went.  Once we were in the park, Greg suggested that we go to Dinoland first.  There was a “Time Warp Dinosaur Exploration Ride” where we were in an interactive vehicle travelling through time to a story plot to find a particular dinosaur.  We dodged dinosaurs, meteor strikes and made it out in time.  It was really fun, and a good ride to start with. 

The clouds were getting dark right before we got on the next ride, a mini rollercoaster.  Just as we got out of the gate, it started to sprinkle; however, the ride continued.  As we were slowly climbing the slope for the drop, it rained harder and harder.  Huge cracks of lightening and thunder hit before it was over, and we were soaked…  Not a good way to start off our day.  We waited for 10 minutes under a cover for the rain to clear, and we walked to the theater where there was a musical for Finding Nemo.  We were going to skip this, but we thought we would sit through it and dry off a little.  The musical was actually really cute.

Next was the big roller coaster to the top of Mount Everest.  The roller coaster twisted and turned, went backwards, and it was all over before we knew it.  After that, it looked like it was going to rain again, so we were going to go to a bird show that was under a cover, but they cancelled the show due to the weather, so we hurried to a restaurant and stopped for lunch during the next big downpour.  It was crazy to see how much rain fell.  I saw on the news that it said certain areas received 5 inches.

After lunch, it was back to the bird show that wasn’t that impressive.  We rode a train over to an area where there was supposed to be a petting zoo, but it was closed because of the weather I assume.  Also, over there you could learn about how they care for the animals.  The only thing of interest was a possum in a pan.  On the trek back to the train, it started raining again, surprise, surprise.  Thankfully, the train was covered overhead.

We were just going to leave, but there was one more all-terrain vehicle attraction that rode through a trail to see the animals of Asia.  We were a little disappointed because the website for Animal Kingdom had all these cool animals on it, and we had only seen a possum in a pan and some birds.  But, we saved the best for last apparently, because this attraction had it all!  The animals were everywhere, and it was cool riding in their environment learning about the animals and their habitats. 

These were the all-terrain vehicles that we were riding in.

This is a mound created by termites.  They were all over.

These trees looked like their roots were in the air.  I can't remember the name of them.

Look in the trees.  There were tons of giraffes.

After the ride, there was a walk that we went on because we were told the gorilla had an infant.

Greg believes he can communicate with gorillas... He just has a staring contest with them, and they do typically get upset.  This one just decided to lay down.

All in all, to put it simply, we were miserable all day with the rain.  We still posed with smiles for the pictures, and we saw some cool things, but the park would have been better enjoyed with children.  So, we are done with Disney, and we won’t be back until several years later if we can still afford it then.