Animal Kingdom 03/04

After a good night sleep we are ready to head over to the Animal Kingdom.  This is something new for us so we are really looking forward to today.

Again $17 to park then a shuttle to the park.  Once inside we find where Expedition Everest is and head over there.  Only a 5 minute wait!!!! It is a long walk winding our way through Dinosaur Land to Asia.  This ride it really a thrilling experience.  We loved it.

 A lot of big climbs just to go down the other side, a lot of nice curves.  You can see in my pic I am anticipating going down.  What great fun.

From here we go to the Kilimanjaro Safaris.  You ride in a safari truck through Africa and see all kinds of animals that roam free.  It was really cool.

 Hippo's, Pelicans and Croc's
OH MY!  Exciting to view these wonderful creatures in a more natural environment than we usually see in a zoo.

There are four baby's to the left, I wish I could remember all the animals names but unfortunately I can't.

The cows below have the biggest horns I have ever seen on a cow.  They are hollow and filled with like honey cones and very light.

Elephants and Giraffes

      and last but not least

The KING of the BEAST
He is taking a morning nap up on the big rock.

Next we head over to the Festival of the Lion King.  This is a 30 minute spectacular show.  It has everything from singing, dancing to a twirling flaming baton.  The dancers and acrobats were really good.  The floats with all the Lion Kings main characters such as Simba, Pumba and Tamone.  We had so much fun with this show we watched it TWICE!

Now on to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail.  This is a self guided trail that takes you to see gorillas, hippos and exotic birds to just name a few.

 The big gorilla was a handsome fellow.  There were also more in another section that had a new baby but to hard to get a pic.

Below is a meercat.

Next we head over to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek.  This is another self guided Trek.  On this one we get to see Giant Bats, Tigers and a Komodo Dragon.  

                                                                    

 How would you like to see one of these flying around?  The ones on the right are Fruit bats.  The pic to the right and the one below are bats that can see and are out in the daylight living on a diet of fruits instead of bugs.  They can have a 6 ft wing span.  They were AWESOME creatures. There are warning signs before entering this habitat if you are queasy about bats (Chris Seals beware) use the bypass trail and I now understand as these amazing creatures are HUGE!

 Tigers and a beautiful duck of some kind.  Wish I knew the kind it is.

 My favorite the tree of life.  It is very unique and fun to look at all that is on it. Click on the pictures to enlarge and see how many critters you can see in the sculpture.  We spent an enjoyable time picking out as many as we could name.

 That's it for Animal Kingdom tomorrow Epcot!

Tampa/Kissimmee 02/27-03/03

Over the weekend we were in Seffner just outside Tampa.  Joe wanted to see the USAC non-wing sprint cars on Friday and Sat night.  He managed Friday night but it rained all day and most of the evening on Sat.  Sunday was a beautiful day.  I was so glad to have nice weather.  We met my nephew, Doug and his wife, Joy, for lunch Sunday afternoon.  Then they joined us back at the RV park.  It was so nice to see them again.  It has been a very long time since I last saw them.  We had a great visit and fun time catching up.  We hope to see them again in a couple of weeks when we will be back in this area.

Sunday we headed over to Orlando/Kissimmee.  We will be spending Tue, Wed, and Thurs at Disney World.  The weather is being nice to us finally and it is another decent day with no rain.  We are staying at a KOA about 6 miles from Disney World.

Monday we are up early to get to the Magic Kingdom by 9am.  It is going to be in the mid 80's today so it should be beautiful.  The highway is very will marked to get where you want to go at Disney World.  We had a little sticker shock at the cost of parking, $17 a day.  Once parked we hop on the shuttle to get to the ticket booth.  We have tickets waiting for us a will call.  Once we get our tickets we then take the monorail to get to the main gate.  This place is so big it takes a while just to get in the main gates.  Once in you realize that it is pretty much Disney Land but bigger.

 Once in we headed for Thunder Mountain it beat long lines.  This is one of our favorite rides.














Next comes Splash Mountain, it has been a long time since I have done this ride and it is as thrilling as I remember.  We were both wet when we got off.  Now for the Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan's Flight and finally Space Mountain.  The longest wait we had was 55 min. at Space Mountain.  We also saw the Country Bear Jamboree and played around on Tom Sawyers Island.  The last thing of the day was the hall of the Presidents.

What a wonderful fun filled day.  We took our time and did want we wanted and didn't wear ourselves out, but were a happy tired when we arrived back home.

Tomorrow Animal Kingdom and the Everest Expedition. Can't wait.