Family Vacation 2005, Day 4....

Today we spent the morning/early afternoon at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The animal kingdom is basically a large zoo with some rides and attractions thrown in. The first thing we did was head over to the Kilimanjaro Safari. They used these big old beat-up safari jeeps to drive folks around the safari. We got to drive through a bunch of areas where the animals and jeep shared the same space. Obviously the dangerous animals (lions, cheetahs, etc.) were safely caged in by the moats (well hidden and disguised). It was very cool to see some of the animals that close up. It's definitely the closest we'll ever get to going on a real safari.

After the safari we headed over to the Kali River Rapids. It's a big circular raft that seats 12 along the perimeter and it travels along a man-made river. There's one steep incline that creates a large splash at the bottom. It also soaks the (un)lucky person(s) situated at the bottom of the raft where it impacts the water first. That lucky person was me. Thomas was on one side and grandpa and grandma were on the other side of me. We all got pretty wet. Not one dry spot on us. So bad that as we were leaving the park we had to buy a new pair of shorts for me and Thomas to change into.

After the rapids we hit a couple of other attractions. The Dinosaur ride was pretty cool. It was very dark, loud, and had lots of mechanical dinosaurs moving around. Definitely not a ride for the little guys (we learned the hard way).

After lunch we left the park and headed over to Disney-MGM Studios. We got there about 1/2 hour before the daily parade was scheduled to start so we grabbed a spot on the curb and waited. The parade was nice. They had a lot of characters drive by in cars and a bunch that danced in the street that came over to the kids sitting on the side and gave hi-fives.

The underlying theme to the day was that Thomas was 2" too short for most of the rides. Nicholas and Joseph (who are both the same height) got to go on a lot more stuff than TJ. We took Nicky and Joey on the Star Tours ride which was a flight simulator and we got to blow up the Death Star. After that we headed over to see the Playhouse Disney performance but were dissapointed to find out we missed the last showing. Instead we went next door and caught the last showing of The Little Mermaid. (Note to anyone planning on going to see that - you get wet sitting in the front row) We were told by Jennie's friend Vanessa (who had gone to Disney about 3 weeks ago) to make sure we went to see Fantasmic and to arrive early to make sure we got seats. So we headed over to the ampitheatre at 7 for the 8pm show. The performance was good but we missed about 1/2 of it. The stage is set in the middle of a large circular lake with seats spanning about 120 degrees. During the performance there are large walls of water sprayed straight up and moving images are shown on the walls of water with a movie projector. There are three such projections shown during the show - one for the middle section, and one on each of the sides. We happened to get the side with the broken projector. The basic premise of the show was that Mickey fell asleep and had a nightmare that all of the evil characters were trying to kill him. Then he fought back and defeated them. Most of the story was portrayed via the projected movies which we missed. It was difficult for the little kids to follow along because all they experienced was noise.

So far, that was the only dissapointed experience on the trip. The kids (and adults) have been having a blast and just watching the kids smile, laugh and get so excited is so worth it.