Walt Disney World April 2015, Day 5 – Animal Kingdom

So, I made a huge mistake on the day we visited Animal Kingdom… I picked up the uncharged battery so by mid morning (right in the middle of the safari) my camera died on me. Heartbroken is the understatement so I have no photos of The Festival of the Lion King or Finding Nemo the Musical. Thank goodness for Photopass!

We arrived at Animal Kingdom just after opening so we headed straight to Dinoland USA where we went on the Animal Kingdom version of Dumbo, twice. After that we took a walk around the park checking out where everything was. I find Animal Kingdom quite close and I couldn’t for the life of me remember where anything was. I had a fast pass for Kilimanjaro Safari at about 10 so we took our time getting there, stopping for some photopass photos with the Tree of Life behind us and also grabbing a pastry for breakfast (and I had two french vanilla iced coffees, Animal Kingdom does the best!) The safari was brilliant, they’ve changed the back story since the last time I went on it and because we didn’t go first thing we didn’t see as many animals but still, it’s one of the best experiences at Disney World, for me anyway because there is no way you’d get me to Africa to do the real thing! After the safari we took a walk around the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. After that we queued so LM could meet Baloo and King Louie from The Jungle Book. I seriously expected her to chicken out but she showed them the same affection as she had every other character she had met so far. Then we made our way to meet Bee and her family so I could ride Expedition Everest with her and the girls. I had expected it to be like the other runaway trains at Disney but I was so wrong! This ride was crazy, crazy but awesome! I have never laughed so much on a ride ever. We said farewell again as they were trying to have a shorter day at the park.

Little Miss and I took the train up to the Conservation Station at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, purely because LM had her heart set on meeting Rafiki and Chip & Dale. We joined the queue to meet Rafiki straight away but we had a little wait before we could meet the chipmunks so we grabbed some lunch. It was so quiet compared to the rest of the park s LM was able to run off some energy by passing an acorn around with some Cast Members. Then a one man band made up a song about her. She surprised me so often on the trip by being such a social little creature, making friends with everyone! When Chip & Dale came out she was happy to run over and hug them before joining the queue to meet them properly. She was happy after that and we took the train back to the main park and went to use our Fast Pass to see The Festival of the Lion King. Which was wonderful, but not a patch on Finding Nemo the Musical which we saw straight afterwards. I don’t even like Finding Nemo the movie, but in musical form, I could watch it continuously! I was all set to call it a day when on the way out the park we saw Minnie and Mickey only had a 10 minute wait! I won’t lie, this spontaneous meet was one of my favourites of the whole trip. Not only is it one of the only places you can meet Minnie & Mickey together but since it was LM’s first time seeing them she was so cuddly and full of kisses! They both wanted to keep her and ended up having a little falling out. Little Miss was so happy that I’d probably say it was the best moment of the whole day! We caught the bus back to the hotel and headed to the pool for a bit, before ordering food to our room and vegging out with The Little Mermaid on Disney Channel.