Animal Kingdom

Day two brought us to Animal Kingdom.  We did have a wild time!

There was something to see in every direction.  Check out the fake tree!

 

I loved the themed Christmas trees and wish there was more of this one in the picture.  Instead, it looks like there is a lion breathing down Dan's neck.

Is there anything better than a expedition themed Christmas set with Explorer Donald??

We caught a really early safari and were in luck... all of the animals were out!  And, I mean all of them.  It was very cool.

 The park itself was beautifully done.  I could have wandered here all day.

We ended up on a train that we thought was just a loop, but it turned out that it dropped us off at this learning station.  Ryan's love of odd posed pictures continued...

And, here he is holding elephant poo. Every mother's dream.  Yuck!  I hope he remembered to wash his hands.  I don't care if it is shellacked... it truly was elephant poo!

There weren't many rides in Animal Kingdom, but there was one roller coaster and it brought the worst moment of our trip.  My only explanation is that even though it was only our second day, we were already exhausted from getting up at 4:00am the day before and then hitting the park as soon as we landed.  So, Tyler spotted the Everest ride from afar and exclaimed that he wasn't going on.  To be fair, it was on a fake mountain that was rather high, but it isn't like it started at the bottom and went to the top.  It started at the top and stayed at the top.  Overall it was very mild.  But, Tyler decided he didn't want to go on.   We knew that if we allowed him to sit out or if we did a child swap that we would spend the rest of our trip doing that so we dragged Tyler on the ride kicking and screaming.  It was awful and I'm sure those around us thought we were the worst parents ever.  He stopped making a fuss as soon as he was on the ride and knew he wasn't getting off, but he refused to enjoy it as you can see in this pic.  It sure was something sitting next to him and listening to Ryan hoot and holler behind me.  While I regret how we got him on the ride, I will say that he didn't fight us on any other ride which is amazing.  Granted, we didn't even attempt any ride that had a 48" minimum.

The good news is that the Everest incident was not what Tyler said was the worst part of Disney.  The next ride is... Dinosaur!  This picture was before.

This picture tells the story.  Ryan was completely freaked out by the robot dinosaurs and Tyler kept his eyes covered most of the time.  See him peaking out from behind his hand?  Whoops!

 

We decided to tone things down and head for a show which the boys really did enjoy.  Thank goodness!

Overall, Animal Kingdom was our least favorite park, but we did enjoy it before Everest and after Dinosaur.  So sorry to the mom who asked Dan if her child would like the ride... Tyler answered a vehement "NO!"

That night we headed to Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Hotel for dinner.  Before we booked the trip I asked each boy if there was something they wanted to do and Tyler picked this meal.

 

Somehow I messed up the reservation time in my head.  I thought it was 5:45pm.  Imagine my surprise when Dan said that he thought we were going to be late at 5:10pm on the way to Magic Kingdom where we planned to catch the monorail to the Contemporary.  Why would we be late?  We have a 1/2 hour... no, we have 15 minutes.  WHAT!?!  Needless to say, we skipped the monorail and ran to the restaurant.  Literally.  We were only 3 minutes late.  Phew!  Unfortunately they snapped or picture as soon as we got there.  Looking a little rosey, huh?

While the food wasn't the greatest, the experience was.

The boys couldn't have been more pleased.

I loved how some of the characters signed the books on their faces.  Too funny!

Pluto was a favorite of Ryan's all week.

Check out this Mickey dessert.  Yum!

Ryan really got into the characters.  They all endured his hugs.

 

The boys were treated like royalty wherever we went because we had let Disney know that we were celebrating their birthdays.  At Chef Mickey's they were given a yellow napkin to let everyone know they were celebrating.  At the end of our meal they received special cupcakes!

It was a great day overall, so we decided to check out Magic Kingdom before heading back to the hotel.