We did the Magic Kingdom our first full day in Disney World, our next full day was at The Animal Kingdom! It was fantastic! My first time ever! The Safari was amazing!!! My mom had given Kali a little animal print hoodie as a gift, it wasn’t too heavy, perfect for a cool February Florida morning and a trip to see all sorts of animals at Disney! So wildly cute!
Can you see the Tree Goddess in the pics below? She was awesome! Thinking I need to try to pull this off next Halloween.
So just like the Magic Kingdom has the Castle in the distance as you walk in that makes for great photo ops, Animal Kingdom has the Tree of Life! I love it! It’s huge and the trunk has all kinds of animals carved into it. During the evenings and night, they have a beautiful light show featuring this tree called The Tree of Life Nighttime Awakening.
I have Nico take pics of us often, he’s a good photog! Photo credit goes to Nico Sneaks!
Animal Kingdom is great, it has different sections; Discovery Island, Africa, Asia or Dinoland. Our first adventure was to head over to Africa, straight to the Safari!
Disney does not disappoint, everything goes so perfectly with the “theme”!
We didn’t have a FastPass for the Safari, there wasn’t any available, so we just went to it as quickly as we could, very early as the park opened. Doing this at Magic Kingdom was a great idea and it worked like a charm again here, we didn’t have to wait in line long at all, although Nico and Kali felt they needed the stroller to take a break!
Eventually they take the strollers ( you pick them back up after the ride) and you have to walk. Or just be carried if you’re one year old! And you’re cute.
There’s our Safari Jeep! Ready to pick us up! A girl is actually driving, no automatic track or vehicle like you typically see on other rides.
And here we go!
So many animals! I loved it and so did Nico and Kali! Nico was so excited to see a crocodile and Kali kept yelling “Geeko! Geeko! Look!!!” (She calls him Geeko.) It was such a great ride and attraction for them. And for Dan and I!
Can you see the lion resting on top of the rock? He blends in perfectly!
Back out and onto the next ride, we’re headed over to Asia to ride the Kali River Rapid Expedition Tour! But first… let me take a selfie! I love the Tree of Life! It reminds me of the tree we have at home, our Oak Tree.
So this is a water ride and it has Kali’s name in it! But, she’s too little to ride, so it was Sneaks and I who got to go!
We had a FastPass so we were jumping ahead of the line quick! Nico was super excited!
When we saw the people ahead of us wearing ponchos… we were a bit surprised. How wet are we going to get?!?!
Oh well, here we go, no ponchos!!!
Honestly, we were fine. A little splash here and there. It’d be perfect on a hot Summer day if you were to get drenched. Next we went through the Jungle Walk to see some bats!
And a tiger!
And then kept walking over toward Everest! Nico had a FastPass to ride at 2:45 P.M. This looked like it was a good roller coaster! He wasn’t sure about it… what he was sure about was that he saw a Komodo Dragon and we then bought him a little toy Komodo Dragon. Loved that thing!
There is a bar in this area, the Thirsty River Bar
But I found myself a cute little tea and coffee shop and got myself an Iced Coffee. Refueled!
Over to DinoLand, this place looked fun, but was a bit of a disappointment. Tons of games, but it took us forever to figure out where to get the tickets to play, and to play just ONE game, was $5. And they weren’t easy winning games. So Dan played for Kali, she won a toy, Sneaks won nothing after playing $50 worth in about 5 minutes, and he walked away so depressed. If the games are to be that expensive, at least give something to make it worth it.
It was getting hot by this time, we needed to reapply sunscreen, rehydrate, take a break and get some food. I have another post about all the good food we found on our Disney trip including where we found lunch at Animal Kingdom.
We did see Safari Donald walk by! Couldn’t stop, had to get to work I think, so it was just a wave!
Nico and a TRex skeleton, on his shirt and beside him!
So Sneaks and Dan rode the Dinosaur ride and Dan said it almost made him sick! Nico actually gets motion sickness often, both of us were surprised he didn’t hurl on the ride. I’m so glad I didn’t ride it because it would’ve taken me awhile to recover. I used to be able to do dizzy rides when I was young, not so much these days!
It was another beautiful day!
Sneaks loves the crocodile and loves his komodo dragon toy.
THIS is Disney World! Right here! Exhausted, hungry, just woke-up from a nap, no baby-talk or ride, just need food ASAP! She’s a good sport and did excellent! Rallied quickly and was up until about 10 that night, just partying!!!
Close-up of the Tree of Life and then going underground to see A Bug’s Life! It was 3D and super funny, but loud, dark you get sprayed by… a stink bug’s fart? Lol. Spiders also drop down from the ceiling, it was a bit scary for Kali, she screamed and cried a few times. Little bugs move along the seats at the end, making you feel like bugs are running underneath your legs and up your back.
Photo credit below goes to Nico! That’s Everest behind us, the biggest ride in the park. They’re building Pandora from Avatar, so next time we visit, we’ll get to see the finished result!
So much walking around, Disney is a workout! It’s a fun workout though. Time to head back to the resort for some pool time!
The shuttle back to the car is like a ride itself for Kali!
