Day #4 - Animal Kingdom!!

We got up and all got moving by about 8:30 am.  We headed off to Animal Kingdom and made it just around park opening.  I scooted over to Expedition Everest through Dinoland while the rope drop crowd, including Jeff, Jacob, Jackson, John, Kat, my dad, and Nancy went the other direction to Asia.  I secured the 9:40 fast passes and soon our crowd met up with me.  Jeff, John, Kat and I rode Expedition Everest and we were on the ride within minutes.  After we rode Everest, Dad &  Nancy decided to skip it, so we headed back to Dinoland and we all rode Triceratops Spin.  Then, everyone but Kat, Jackson and I rode Primeval Whirl.  By this time, it was about 9:30 am, and we headed to Kali River Rapids, where the line was actually up to 15-20 minutes.  We didn't wait too long for Kali, and the first group, my dad, Nancy, me, Jacob and Jeff rode first using a baby swap.  We ended up being on the side of the raft that went backwards, so we got absolutely soaked.  We tried using ponchos, but I can't say they worked all that great.  Except, I did wrap the poncho around my hips instead of wearing it, and it actually kept my behind from getting wet, but my shirt was drenched. Next, John and Kat rode and Jacob rode a second time!  Jacob was soaked!! Jeff ran and got us fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari that would work from 11 am to 12 pm.

After Kali, it was about 10:30 and our fastpasses expired at 10:40, so we hightailed it back over to Expedition Everest and just Jeff, John and I rode.  We got a great picture on the big drop and purchased it!!  While we rode, the rest of the party went to the Maharajah Trail   After the second trip to Everest, we went over and waited at the end of the Trail for everyone else.  When they got out, it was almost 11 am, so we scooted over towards Safari.  Jackson had fallen asleep!  He slept on the way to Safari and through the line until we had to park the stroller.  Sidenote:  hate the stroller parking at Safari - they "valet" park your stroller and you can never find it when you get off!  We made it onto Safari pretty quickly with fastpasses. It was a great Safari!  We saw a lot of animals.  Particular highlights were the elephants and the giraffes.  We saw several baby elephants, and also some elephants that were in the  water and were spraying themselves.  We also saw more giraffes in one spot than I've ever seen - maybe 7-9 all eating in the same set of trees, and very close to the Jeep.

After the Safari, we headed to lunch at Flame Tree BBQ.  We've eaten there on every trip to Animal Kingdom.  We like the food, the portions are huge and it's fun to watch the ducks walk around as you eat.  Jeff and I split a Pork BBQ sandwich and onion rings.  It was all yummy.  The rest of the group enjoyed their food too.  After eating, we had a great time watching a mama duck being followed around by four baby ducks.  Jackson especially enjoyed chasing them around.   After lunch, Jacob wanted to go back and ride Primeval Whirl, as well as do some of the games in Dinoland.  The rest of the folks were ready to head out.  

Jacob and Jeff rode Whirl again, and then we let Jacob play 3 of the Carnival games.  He first played Whack a Mole, and he lost  :(  Next, he played a squirting game and he won!  He was excited.  He next played a game where he rolled a ball on a smaller version of skee ball and a water buffalo raced other buffalos depending on where you rolled your ball.  He was running last the entire time, but came back to win.  He was soooo excited.  

After that, we headed back out of the park by 2:30 pm or so, and most everyone got into the pool.  We capped off the day with hot dogs & burgers on the grill.  It was a great day!